Shaquille O’Neal is not a man to be trifled with. When his reputation is on the line, he will do anything. Even if that means breaching one of the world’s most well-guarded buildings, the White House. The stakes? Just a thousand pushups!
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There is something so trivial about betting that makes it seem like a wasteful indulgence. Michael Jordan for one loves to bet. So much so that he would be willing to lose millions and the NBA reportedly ousted him for his gambling addiction.
We didn’t think Shaquille O’Neal would be one to bet, but this story stumped us too. Shaq belongs to the NBA menagerie. Basketball players are an eclectic and athletic bunch.
They tend to do things their way. O’Neal was challenged about his reputation and instead of putting on the line, well, he put his body.
Shaquille O’Neal made an absurd bet centered around the White House and staked 1000 push-ups if he lost!
Shaq felt that he was so famous he could walk inside the White House, without an invitation. O’Neal made a bet, presumably in front of Sports Illustrated reporters to some of his entourage that he could do it.
Without needing any sort of invitation and not even contacting some of his “pals in the Secret Service”. He even vowed to surrender his cell phone before entering the White House. Bold.
The stake was that he would do 1000 pushups. The result?
Well, O’Neal wasn’t allowed. “They were nice, they said, ‘Shaq, we can’t do it'”, O’Neal told the Washington Post. Apparently, to fulfill the bet, Shaq knocked out 20-30 pushups at the time.
Shaq is now a man of the people
These days when Shaq’s ego gets bruised, he doesn’t say much. He just says he has 4 championships. More often than not the guy doing the bruising is Charles Barkley. Hence the mention of championships.
He is now a well-respected host on Inside the NBA on TNT. And in his spare days, he will be in a commercial. That commercial could be for anything. Trust me. Anything.
