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7’1 NBA Giant’s Reputation Was Ruined By Shaquille O’Neal Only for a Michael Jordan like Redemption Story: “He Was the Nicest Guy I Ever Met in My Life”

Published 08/22/2022, 12:00 PM EDT

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The Big Podcast is where Shaquille O’Neal shares his best anecdotes from his past. He talked about ‘The David Robinson story’ with Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith and the entire podcast crew. Interestingly, Shaquille O’Neal made up a story about David Robinson just to fuel himself. It was pretty ‘Michael Jordan’ of Shaq to make up an entire story. Kenny clarified that David Robinson himself said that that story is untrue.

Shaq had a big disagreement with David Robinson because he did not sign his autograph. It turns out David never did any such thing. Kenny revealed that Shaq made that whole story up for 30 years. Kenny exclaimed that it wasn’t until last year that Shaq finally admitted to that. He finally told them the story was not at all true.

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Kenny said, “We had this big disagreement with David Robinson because he never signed his autograph; yes, that never happened; did y’all know that? That never happened. He made that whole story up for 30 years so he could be mad.

Robinson never disrespected Shaq. And to confirm this Shaq said, “David Robinson, the nicest guy I ever met in my life. First time I saw him in San Antonio he says, ‘hey big man, like your game. I wish you luck.'” It is absolutely hilarious that Shaq was so petty that he did not tell anyone the truth for so long. Everyone burst out laughing when Shaq actually started to reason as to why he created the rumor.

Why did Shaquille O’Neal make up The David Robinson Story?

On the podcast, Shaq explained why he created the whole autograph story, but Kenny was still shocked as he had believed it for 30 years.

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In 1988 and 1989, Shaq was the topic of discussion in the tabloids and papers in San Antonio. Shaq was the first big man there in his high school and college days. However, when San Antonio was taken over by David Robinson, Shaq found himself in the latter sections of the papers. He hated that David was in the spotlight.

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Shaq’s beef with Robinson started when he found himself on pages three and four of a newspaper. Additionally, when the Orlando drafted Shaq and he returned to San Antonio to play the game, The fans booed him. That is when he came up with the story.

Shaq apologized to David for the rumor

In 2020, Lakers star Shaq apologized to David for the story on a Zoom call. Shaq needed some motivation on the court and did something that only Michael Jordan has done before. Nevertheless, Shaq was apologetic about it.

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Shaq said, “David, I want to say I apologize for making up that rumor. David took all my shine when he came to San Antonio, so I hated him for that. And the first couple of years, he used to kill me, so I had to make up my rumor to get mad.”

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WATCH THIS STORY: 3 Times 395 Pound NBA Giant Shaquille ONeal Scared The Life Out Of Fans By Diving Head First Into The Crowd

O’Neal and David were playing together in the 1996 USA Olympic team. It was then that he came clean to Robinson. Despite Robinson being amicable with him, Shaq created a beef to give him some motivation to defeat Robinson.

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Written by:

Shrey Gupta

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Shrey Gupta is an NBA writer for EssentiallySports. He is currently a third year undergraduate student at Krea University in Andhra Pradesh earning his degree in Economics, while also creating content for ES and gaining his first experience in the field of sports journalism and writing. An avid basketball fan, his current favorites are Stephen Curry and D'Angelo Russell.
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