Shaquille O'Neal joins Florida cop to surprise kids in neighbourhood basketball game
A group of neighbourhood teens received the surprise of their lives when a police officer arrived investigating a noise complaint of kids playing "loudly" in the street.
Instead of telling them to be quiet or leave, Officer Bobby White, of Florida’s Gainesville Police Department, dealt with the situation by joining in on the fun, shooting hoops with the kids.
In a Dashcam video uploaded to the Gainesville Police Department Facebook page, Officer White AKA 'The Basketball Cop' can be seen grabbing the ball, dribbling and he even makes a neat dunk.
Within minutes, more neighbourhood children join in.
As the officer leaves, he tells the children he had no problem with them playing in the street, but asks them to "try not to be too loud" and "have fun".
“I’d rather see you doing this than out there causing problems,” he says.
He tells the boys he might bring some back up and "we’ll get a little game on".
Three days later, Officer White returns, surprising the children with former NBA Miami Heat player Shaquille O'Neal, as well as a team of officers.
"Told you I was gonna bring some backup, right? You guys ready?" he asks the kids.
"Look at these big guys I brought. You sure you can take them?"
The children are in disbelief when the 7-foot-1 Shaq emerges from the police car to play.
"Oh my God, you're huge!" one of the kids says the NBA legend, who leans in for a hug.
The video showing the officer shooting hoops with the kids reached nearly 2 million views in its first 12 hours of being posted to Facebook.
"We're going to let kids be kids. We are going to focus on the ones that commit crimes. #HoopsNotCrime," the Gainesville Police Department said on the Facebook post accompanying the video.
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