NBA Retirees Gettin' Degrees!

Credit: Peter Andrew Bosch, The Miami Herald/AP Photo

I know this is a bit late, but I felt the need to post it since I'm a firm believer in athletes completing their education. If you haven't already heard, around two weeks ago, Shaquille O'Neal received a doctorate in education, and last week, former Head Coach Don Nelson earned his degree from the University of Iowa.

College is supposed to create a path for a career, but if you're one of the best basketball players in the country, completing college becomes less necessary. If you have the talents to make it in the NBA, that becomes your career. As long as you're not an idiot and lose all your money, you should be set for most of your life. Therefore, it's very inspiring to see two people who were at the top of their professions go back to college once their basketball careers were done.

I think there's two lessons that can be extracted from this. From Shaq's case (or should I say Dr. O'Neal), I think we can learn that outside appearances are deceiving. Shaq is one of the greatest basketball players ever, and has a reputation is being kind of a goofball. Yet, he now has a PhD AND graduated with a 3.81 GPA. In Nelly's case, he shows us that it's never too late to go back to school, having gotten his degree 50 years after first attending Iowa.

For more on each of their cases, here are some links:

Shaq: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/entertainment/2012/05/shaquille-oneal-earns-doctorate-degree/
Don Nelson: http://www.chicagotribune.com/sports/sns-rt-bkn-newssx464a7a1-20120509,0,1107133.story

Credit: Charlie Neibergall