Shaquille O’Neal has become a pillar within the comedy community throughout the years. Despite his connections to legendary comics such as Kevin Hart, Katt Williams and Adam Sandler, he has a direct blood relation with one of the biggest in the game. O’Neal and iconic comic Bill Bellamy happen to be first cousins and have known each other their entire lives. But there was a time when Shaq’s relationship with Bellamy was turbulent to say the least.
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Bellamy and O’Neal began to ascend in their respective careers around the same time. The 7-foot-1 big man joined the Los Angeles Lakers ahead of the 1996-97 season, during which time, Bellamy had opened for his role model Richard Pryor.
Shaq’s relocation to LA led to the cousins spending a significant amount of time together, but it wasn’t long before the pair had a bit of a ‘fallout’.
“After that, we had a beef, remember that? Remember what our beef was about?” Shaq asked Bellamy on The Big Podcast earlier today.
Bellamy had worked on a few films up to that point but spearheaded the cult classic, ‘How to Be a Player’, of which Shaq was a big fan. But the 4-time NBA champion wasn’t too keen on seeing his life unfold on the screen.
“You gave up all my secrets,” O’Neal proclaimed. “I was so mad at you. I was like, ‘Bill, you’re my first cousin, I love you, but you’re giving up too many secrets.”
At the time, O’Neal was single, living a bachelor’s life and as such had his own smooth ways of meeting and talking with women. It turns out Bellamy, the keen observer that he was, used those as a defining trait for the main character of the film, Dray Jackson, whom he played himself.
Bellamy couldn’t help but laugh at Shaq in response. He didn’t mean to expose his cousin in the film, but ended up doing so again on the podcast, much to Shaq’s embarrassment.
“You’ve got to understand, at that time, you were single and you were doing the most,” Bellamy said. “I remember our Orlando days were crazy.”
O’Neal quickly shifted the conversation, leaving what happened between the two cousins in Orlando a true secret. That part of O’Neal’s life remains in the past.
Shaq would marry and settle down with Shaunie Henderson in 2002, but the two would separate in 2011, after accusations of infidelity against the Lakers star. They would get divorced the same year but end up being loving co-parents to their 4 kids.
