Work hard, party harder might be a phrase appropriate to the life and career of Shaquille O’Neal. The fun-spirited 7-footer is renowned for living it large, literally and figuratively.
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Big Shaq was one of the premier players in the NBA. But the former NBA champion with the Heat and the Lakers wasn’t known for pristine shows of character. O’Neal’s “indiscipline” took a fair share of the headlines during his time in the league.
Also read: 7-foot Rookie Shaquille O’Neal Savagely Broke the Backboard in a One-on-one Against Ahmad Rashad
Superman became a symbol of fun and pomp and while in LA, this image only elevated. Shaq’s success on the court meant that there was no locus for any criticism.
And boy, did Shaq revel in that confidence. And arguably the best example of how confident O’Neal was, and how “larger than life” it got with him, came in 1998. In the middle of a Playoff series, not many players would dare to visit strip clubs. But the Big Diesel clearly was different gravy.
What did Shaquille O’Neal allegedly get into during a Playoff series at Seattle?
While it hasn’t been confirmed that O’Neal is the protagonist of this story, the story seems quintessentially Shaq. According to people close to the Lakers, a Laker entourage comprising “7-foot-tall guys, basketball guys”, made quite an eventful trip to a Seattle strip club.
The events unfolded during the 1998 Western Conference Semifinals, which the Lakers eventually won 4-1. As described in The Three Ring Circus by Jeff Pearlman, what took place seems straight out of a movie.
“The team advanced to play Seattle, and all Del Harris wanted (all he ever really wanted) was a workmanlike effort from his team. A professional approach. A get-in-there and-take-care-of-business way of . . .Dammit. The series was scheduled to start May 4. One day earlier, O’Neal and six teammates were spotted at Rick’s, a Seattle strip club known as a hot spot for prostitution. The players combined to drop $2,000 on table dances. Al Hansen, Rick’s day manager, confirmed to the Seattle Times’s Jean Godden that several “7-foot-tall guys, basketball types,” had visited the establishment” wrote Pearlman in his compilation of various accounts from the time.
There even was a fan who collected autographs from the players. Clearly, someone who knew who he saw was there. However, that fan, Dominique Weitzel spoke about how he won’t disclose the identities.
“I don’t want to throw my boys under the bus,” he said when Godden asked him to identify the athletes.
Wrote Godden: “[Weitzel] may have been thinking about Shaq’s image. The basketball star just signed a contract with Scholastic Inc. to create a fairy-tale collection: ‘Shaq and the Beanstalk and Six Other Very Tall Tales.”
The story has a Shaq-shaped footprint all over it. And matches up to the legend of O’Neal. We can never be too certain though.
How did the Lakers eventually perform in the series against the Sonics?
$2,000 table dances may not have been the norm. But the Shaq and Kobe Lakers winning had started to become the norm in LA.
In the 1998 series against the Sonics, Shaquille O’Neal absolutely dominated and led the Lakers to a Gentleman’s Sweep. Superman averaged 30 points, 10 rebounds, and 4 assists for the series. Incredible numbers indeed, especially considering the strip club stories that went with it.
While they eventually got swept by the Utah Jazz, this was merely the beginning for the Lakers. A Shaq and Kobe inspired three-peat followed and a golden era was ushered in.
