“Can You Do This Kyrie Irving?”: Shaquille O’Neal Once Hilariously Tried To Replicate Mavericks Guard’s ‘Otherworldly’ Stretches

Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t miss a chance to troll NBA players. His Shaqtin’ a Fool series poking fun at basketball stars’ innocuous botches was a fun experience for the fans. However, players like JaVale McGee, who was on the receiving end of a lot of trolling did not enjoy the Hall of Famer’s jokes. Another player that O’Neal went after out of the blue was Kyrie Irving. In 2018, the then-Boston Celtics superstar was spotted doing incredible stretching exercises that defied physics.

O’Neal was seemingly among the non-believers and decided to troll Irving. He posted a video from the TNT studio emulating the superstar’s stretching exercises. He mockingly asked Irving in the video:

“Can you do this Kyrie Irving?”

After O’Neal emulated Irving, the camera panned to 15 TNT crew members lifting the nearly 350-pound retired NBA superstar. At one point, the 15 men and women were tasked with lifting O’Neal off the ground. It took the collective strength of everyone in the line to tug with all their might to elevate him off the ground. They managed to keep him suspended in the air for merely five seconds before giving up. To O’Neal’s credit, he did not break character despite facing the risk of falling face-first on the ground from a considerable height.

O’Neal spoof aside, Irving’s original video sparked debate among fans about the authenticity of the then-Celtics superstar’s eye-popping body balance. When quizzed whether it was real, he coyly responded:

“It’s magic, man. That’s all I can say. It’s just magic. I’m just appreciative of Nike giving me the technology, my shoes, being able to capture that on camera.”

Evidenced by his comments, it was the magic of editing to promote his shoes, much like Kobe Bryant‘s viral video of him leaping over an Aston Martin racing towards him.

Irving’s video, like Bryant’s, may have been doctored, but it did its intended purpose of getting people’s attention.

Shaquille O’Neal once slammed Kyrie Irving

O’Neal’s next viral message for Irving was no laughing matter. In November 2022, the guard shared a video promoting an Amazon Prime movie with antisemitic tropes. Irving received universal criticism for the post, but O’Neal did not mince word when calling out the then-Nets superstar. He said:

“It hurts me sometimes when we have to sit up here to talk about stuff that divides the game. Now we got to answer for what this idiot has done. I can’t speak for him or answer for what he’s doing. It’s obvious by his answers he doesn’t really care.”

Irving paid the price for his mistake. Nike dropped him as a brand ambassador and the Nets suspended him for five games without pay for refusing to take down the post and denouncing antisemitism. He did eventually apologize with an Instagram post but ended up deleting it. As talented as the point guard is, his flat Earth belief, anti-vaccine stance, antisemitism controversy, and multiple exits from teams have made him an unpopular figure among NBA fans.