“Hey Alexa, introduce me to Shaq”: Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal joins Samuel L Jackson on Amazon’s celebrity voice assistant service as $5 paid service

If you’ve wanted to interact with Shaquille O’Neal and you can’t, perhaps Alexa is your best option. Alexa recently added Shaq to its celebrity options.

Shaquille O’Neal retired from professional basketball over 10 years ago. The Big Aristotle, however, continues to be one of the NBA’s major public presences even today.

Since retirement, the Lakers legend has been a panelist for TNT’s wildly popular pre-game show Inside the NBA. It was a bumpy ride for him initially as Chris Webber and Charles Barkley took the mickey out of hm.

However, Shaq has settled in nicely for that role and is now arguably the next most valuable person to the show after Charles Barkley. He’s also learnt a bit of voice acting and modulation through being on national television.

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On top of being one of middle-aged America’s favorite people, Shaq has a larger-than-life presence. All of this has undoubtedly factored into Amazon’s decision to feature the Lakers star on their signature Amazon voice assistant.

Shaquille O’Neal joins Samuel L Jackson on Amazon’s voice assistant service as $5 paid service

Amazon released their celebrity voice feature with Samuel L Jackson in 2019 to widely positive reviews. It became their most-purchased Amazon product on its release day as the Pulp Fiction actor’s NSFW language options attracted millions of customers.

The tech giants have decided to add 2 more celebrities to their list of late. Shaquille O’Neal and Melissa McCarthy have, thus, been added to Amazon’s list of celebrity voice assistants recently.

“I just wanted to add my personality to the Alexa experience,” Shaq told Variety. “I think the fans are gonna love it. They’re going to see a unique side of me.”

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The Lakers legend says he spent up to eight hours recording words, phrases and sentences in what he described as one of the toughest jobs he’s ever undertaken:

“It was like reading out of the dictionary. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever done.”

Shaq said he added his own flavor to the recordings, occasionally ad-libbing. “I had to Shaq-en up the phrases,” he said. “Some of the things they sent me were too corporate — it wasn’t the way I talk.”