Earlier this year, Shaquille O’Neal mortified the NBA world after showcasing his feet during a live TNT broadcast. Shaq’s feet presented a graphic picture of his years of toil as a basketball star. The distorted toes and ashy, dry skin on the Lakers legend’s feet soon became a meme and fans started roasting him across the Internet. As if to take the attention off of his feet, Shaq soon shared an Instagram video of a YouTuber asking NBA fans to identify NBA players from pictures of their feet. The video started by showing a picture of LeBron James’ feet that were disfigured in a similar manner. 12 years before Shaq shared the video, another picture of LeBron James‘ feet stunned the Internet.
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BRUH. 😳 (via @NBAonTNT) pic.twitter.com/s1qntcIWhi
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) May 26, 2017
In the picture, James could be seen sitting with his teammates in the locker room. But fans went berserk after noticing six toes in James’ right foot.
The mystery of LeBron James’ sixth toe
In 2011, Getty Images caused a ruckus online after publishing an image of James where the four-time NBA champion could be seen to have grown an extra toe. Various reports tried to solve the mystery of James’ sixth toe.
There was little chance of James actually having six toes, because it would be impossible to hide such a crucial medical detail from fans for so long. The image was discovered to be completely genuine as well, without any signs of tampering or editing.
Eventually, other photos of James’ feet resolved the mystery. James has five toes all right, but his big toe is bent towards his second toe significantly. This has created an illusion in the Getty picture that James has another toe beside his first toe. But in actuality, the other ‘toe’ is an extension of the side of his feet.
James’ feet doesn’t need surgery
A closeup image of James’ feet from a picture taken while the King was walking barefoot on the beach went viral in 2015. This prompted many fans to ask the question whether James needs surgery to fix his deformed toes.
HAMMERTIME! LeBron James' toes will give you nightmares… http://t.co/kJcglrnwGl pic.twitter.com/M2QpYSvh9h
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) September 1, 2015
However, reports confirmed that the condition of James’ toes are normal for an elite basketball player. And he doesn’t need surgery to perform at the highest level with those feet.
The images of LeBron and Shaq’s feet really goes on to show how hard basketball is on the body of NBA players. James Harden is another NBA star whose feet have captured the attention of fans in the past.
