“Didn’t Say a Million Real Dollars!”: Shaquille O’Neal ‘Trolls’ Jamal Crawford with $1 Million ‘Shaq’ Dollars

Shaquille O’Neal is a man of great confidence, but sometimes it borders on overconfidence and backfires spectacularly. On Tuesday, the Denver Nuggets trailed the Phoenix Suns by 15 points at halftime. Seeing this, Shaq predicted on the halftime show on TNT that the reigning champions would mount a comeback and secure the win. Former Suns star Jamal Crawford felt confident about his team’s chances and sensed an opportunity to lure the big man into making a bad bet.

He told the former Los Angeles Lakers superstar that he’d bet $1,000 on Phoenix winning the game if he put up $10,000 on the line. An overconfident Shaq replied that he was betting $1 million on the Nuggets.

To his credit, Denver did overturn the 15-point deficit and force overtime, but the Suns outscored the home team 15-5 to pull off the upset. During the post-game show, Shaq brought a box full of cash as if to pay up his bet and started pulling out cash wads to pay off Crawford.

Crawford was ecstatic at first, but his smile quickly disappeared after co-host Candace Parker showed the cash wads to the camera. While the bills resembled the American dollar, they had Shaq’s face printed on them. They were wads of Shaq dollars.

The hilarious revelation left the production crew in splits. Crawford began throwing the cash bundles at O’Neal, who ducked and said,

“I didn’t say a million real dollars! I said a million dollars!”

O’Neal managed to escape paying out a million dollars on a technicality, but the presence of the box of Shaq dollars suggests that he had the whole thing planned out in advance. It was another iconic TV moment involving Shaquille O’Neal and the TNT panel.

Shaquille O’Neal has a history of avoiding paying off bets

This wasn’t the first time that Shaquille O’Neal had made a bad bet and refused to pay it off. In January 2023, the Hall of Famer overconfidently backed TCU to beat Georgia in the NCAA National Championship Game. He claimed that he’d eat a horned frog on live TV if Georgia won the game. The horned frog is TCU’s mascot. Georgia not only won, they pummelled TCU 65-7 in a historic beatdown to win their second straight national title.

O’Neal pretended to be a man of his word and brought a container of fried frog legs. However, co-host Adam Lefkoe sensed that he was lying. He tasted the frog legs, and confirmed that they were chicken.

Had one of his co-workers made a similar bet, O’Neal would’ve ensured that they go through with their punishment. He would’ve ensured Jamal Crawford paid out $1,000, and his co-host ate the frog legs as promised. However, O’Neal always has a contingency plan in place when he’s the one on the receiving end of the punishment. That’s what makes him must-watch TV.