Retired NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal was a notorious prankster throughout his career and that love of hazing continues to this day. Shaq routinely messes with his Inside the NBA co-hosts but it’s not limited to just that crew. Ask Kevin Hart.
However, sometimes Shaq’s pranks go a little too far.
During a recent appearance on Entirely NBA, Jason Richardson recalled several instances where Shaq tormented teammate Lou Amundson during their time with the Phoenix Suns.
It began innocently enough. Shaq would often hide Amundson’s bike, which he rode to practice, throughout the arena. But once Amundson decided to retaliate, Shaq took things to a new, disgusting level.
“Every time Lou rode his bike to practice, Shaq would hide it somewhere in the arena,” Richardson said. “Lou would spend 45 minutes to an hour after every practice trying to find his bike.
“I warned Lou, ‘This is Shaq. He does crazy stuff. He’s the type to take a dump in people’s shoes and magazines.'”
Amundson did not heed that warning and he paid dearly.
Days later, Shaq walked up to Amundson’s locker completely naked and to the shock of his teammates, left an unexpected present behind. But it only got worse — much worse — from there.
“The game happened, I come in the locker room, and I see Shaq. Shaq walking around that locker room naked as nothing, real slow and tight,” Richardson recalled. “And he pulls a mouthpiece out his (butt) and puts it in a locker. He told us, ‘Y’all better not say s–t either.’ He takes Lou’s toothbrush, he goes to take a s–t, and he stirs it in his s–t. We like, ‘We ain’t into this s–t, this is getting out of hand.”
Initially, Amundson’s teammates remained quiet and that led to a sickening end to the whole story.
“Lou Amundson checks in the game, and he puts the mouthpiece on and everybody on the bench loses it,” Richardson said. “He comes to the locker room, he takes his mouthpiece off, and someone’s like, ‘Hey Lou, don’t use your mouthpiece; Shaq put your mouthpiece in his (butt).’ He said, ‘Uh, no, he didn’t,’ and puts it back in his mouth and goes out there. The bench loses it again.
“So Lou gets subbed out of the game, and he says, ‘J-Rich, are they f——g with me? What happened?’ I said, ‘Shaq took your mouthpiece and put it in his (butt), bro.’ He took it out, and he just looked at it. Matt Barnes said to him, ‘Anything in your locker has probably been in Shaq’s (butt), throw it all away.'”
Perhaps Charles Barkley and some others should reconsider messing with Shaq — the man clearly has no limits.
