The crowd went wild as Shaquille O'Neal walked the stage...

     It took Shaq 20 years to earn his degree in education after leaving college early to play in the NBA.

     But he promised his mother he would get his degree.

     Well...he did and kept going until earning a Doctorate in Education.

     Shaq told Good Morning America reporter Yunji Denise it hasn't been easy.

    " The hardest part was getting back into high school mode. you ever have that high school teacher that says, you've got to read 6 chapters over the weekend? Yunji: and you're going, oh my God! yeah, so a lot of times, it was a lot of reading."

     Now Shaq says that he will only answer to Doctor O'Neal.