Shaquille O’Neal has always been known as a very generous dude. Last week we looked back at the time he bought two Spanish children a new laptop out of the goodness of his heart, and today we’re back with a story about another time he gave something, this time to a teammate. As we’ll soon find out though, this is one present that nobody would want to get.
Advertisement
Clippers coach Ty Lue shared a story two weeks ago on The Draymond Green Show with Baron Davis about a time that Shaq took rookie hazing a bit too far. According to Lue, Lakers rookie Devean George had forgotten to do some kind of favor for Shaq that he had promised to do, and in response, how do we put this… Shaq left him a present of the No. 2 variety in his shoe.
On Podcast P with Paul George, PG and his co-hosts reacted with disgust to the story, with George nearly falling out of his chair upon hearing what Shaq had done.
“I ain’t seen nothing like that, bro. That’s over the top.”
George went on to say that he’d seen his share of pranks during his time in the league, but they’ve been much more wholesome, or at the very least, much less disgusting than what Shaq pulled. He spoke about a teammate’s car being filled with popcorn, another teammate’s clothes being thrown in the cold tub, and rookies’ cell phones being hidden, but nothing on the level of using someone’s shoes for your own personal toilet.
Only Shaquille O’Neal could get away with something like this
If anybody else pulled a stunt like this, it would be time to throw down, but when it’s the Big Diesel, what’s a guy supposed to do? Shaq had four inches and about 100 pounds on Devean George, and probably could have stuffed him inside the foul-smelling shoe if he wanted to.
Something like this isn’t excusable, but Paul George did defend the big man by saying that Shaq is legendary for pulling crazy pranks and then going above and beyond to make it up to his victims.
“I have heard Shaq’s the type to do something like that and then give you $25,000 or go buy you a brand new car.”
Is it worth it to suffer an indignity like this if there’s a big cash prize or a new car waiting at the end? To each his own, but I’ll bet Devean George will spend the rest of his life checking his shoes before he puts them on, so I’m going to guess he’d rather this never happened at all.
