If you noticed one 7’1″ giant missing from the All-Star Weekend, that’s because Shaquille O’Neal took his private jet to Milan. For the Winter Olympics of course. While we’re yet to see him meet the Canadian bobsled star named after him and Penny Hardaway, the Orlando Magic icon made a hilarious stop at the TODAY show’s Milan Cortina set. There the four-time NBA champion was specifically seeking out his idol. And no, it’s not Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

While O’Neal has repeated time and time again that he idolized His Airness to this day, during his Milan trip he confessed that despite his dominance on the hardwood, he is a total fish out of water on the ice. Lucky for his idol in skates was at the Today show.

“I just got here yesterday, but I’ll be here for a couple more days. I think we’re going to the hockey competition,” Shaq told the TODAY anchors about his day’s plans. The 7-foot-1 legend then became visibly excited as he scanned the area for a certain 1984 figure skating champion. “I just saw one of my idols, Mr. Scott. Mr. Scott, he’s going to teach me how to skate. Scott, come. Scott, Scott, come give me a hug.”

That was Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton, a 5’4″ legend on ice who was winning gold medals before Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing were even in the league. When they stood next to each other, Hamilton said, “His breakfast was bigger than I am.”

And Shaq wants Hamilton. to help him find his footing on ice. Three years removed from his hip surgery, Shaq wants Hamilton to teach him how to skate.

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We hope Scott knows how huge it is that he just outdid a trifecta of NBA greatness to get the big guy’s respect.

Shaquille O’Neal’s list of idols just got longer

A behind-the-scenes clip from Today’s social media showed Scott Hamilton zip out of the outdoor set so fast that the cameras didn’t even get to catch him. He was inside the studio as soon as Shaq called him to return the big man some love. After the interview, Hamilton made sure to flex the encounter in a post writing, “Had so much fun hanging out with @shaq today… he’s going to teach me how to skate!”

This is the closest Shaq’s publicly gotten to any of his idols and get some love back. He idolized NBA’s big men after his dad took him to Dr J and Patrick Ewing’s games. O’Neal wore #33 at LSU and for most of his NBA career as a tribute to Patrick Ewing. But that didn’t stop him from getting aggressive during a 2000 Lakers-Knicks game.

O’Neal even modeled himself after the big man standard, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. But O’Neal took the Showtime star’s criticism personally which resulted in decades-long frosty tension between them till they squashed it in 2017.

Michael Jordan remains top of his idols list but Shaq also feared him. O’Neal also looked up to Magic Johnson, who personally mentored him and made him into the offcourt business titan he is now.

However, in the thin air of Milan, the 7-foot-1 giant seems to have found a new kind of inspiration in Scott Hamilton—one that doesn’t involve dunks or championships, but rather the simple, daunting challenge of staying upright on two thin blades of steel.