Shaquille O’Neal uses his social media platform quite religiously to share anything that comes to his attention. This time, Shaq shared a hilarious meme created by a user on TikTok on his Instagram profile. The meme claimed the Big Diesel to have been arrested for earning over $1 million selling Chuck E. Cheese tokens as ‘bitcoins.’
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While the meme was funny and intended to troll Shaq, what amused fans the most was Shaq taking the meme seriously, Shaq has been associated with Papa John’s since 2019 and is also a member of the brand’s board of directors. Denying any association with the Chuck E. Cheese brand, Shaq wrote in his caption, “Who did this [?!] it’s Papa John’s forever.”
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The comments section was filled with fans expressing their amusement at the cost of Shaq being trolled. However, seems like Papa John’s social media account supported Shaq in this time of misery, claiming always to have his back. Perhaps the +Diesel does not mind a little trolling from fans, given he participates in this fun and banter through his social media posts. That said, whether or not he did feel the need to reiterate his association with Papa John’s rather than Chuck. E. Cheese remains cloudy.
Shaquille O’Neal found himself in legal trouble following the FTX scandal
While Shaq might not be selling Chuck E. Cheese tokens as bitcoins, he has quite a vivid history in relation to cryptocurrencies. Shaq was one of the spokespersons of the crypto exchange agency FTX and was served with a class action lawsuit right after FTX failed to give the users their money back and declared bankruptcy last year.
However, it was surprising to see Shaq dodge the legal case, making it incredibly difficult for the lawyers of the FTX investors to serve him his complaint notice. In a later statement, O’Neal claimed he was endorsing the company simply based on being a paid spokesperson.
Besides crypto, Shaquille O’Neal was also served with a second complaint alleging that he and his son promoted an NFT project called ‘ASTRALS’. Though O’Neal and his son later abandoned this project, the plaintiff’s attorney, Adam Moskowitz, noted that this new case opposed all claims of Shaq’s previous claims about having no experience in crypto and other such digital currencies.
Using NFT Astrals, Moskowitz claimed that O’Neal, his son, and his business partner solely planned to make millions of dollars based on the likeness and involvement of Shaq.
O’Neal using his name and likeness to earn money is hardly something new, or even egregious for that matter. However, whether or not he did actually do what he was accused of, falling into these controversies is slowly but surely going to start grating on Shaq’s reputation. And once that begins, his many lines of income may start to dwindle before long as well.
As good of a person as the Los Angeles Lakers legend may be, he needs to be a bit more careful about the companies he attaches his name to next.
