Shaquille O’Neal Once Blatantly Lied About Beefing With an NBA Hall of Famer Over a Refused Autograph
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Shaquille O’Neal Once Blatantly Lied About Beefing With an NBA Hall of Famer Over a Refused Autograph
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LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 14: Shaquille O’Neal onstage at The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber at Sony Pictures Studios on March 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
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LOS ANGELES, CA – MARCH 14: Shaquille O’Neal onstage at The Comedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber at Sony Pictures Studios on March 14, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images)
People today know Shaquille O’Neal as one of the nicest and funniest guys in the NBA community. He has become a people person ever since his NBA retirement, and with his philanthropist ways. However, that wasn’t always the case when the big man was still playing in the league. Shaq had beef with many players during his prime years and one of them was NBA legend, David Robinson.
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Robinson was one of the best players in the league when Shaq entered the league. According to ‘The Diesel’, Robinson once refused to sign an autograph for a young Shaq. Ever since that day he was determined to take revenge against ‘The Admiral’. That came to pass when Shaq got the better of the San Antonio Spurs legend with a poster dunk.
Shaq’s dunk on David Robinson is absurd. 😳
Prime Shaq had so much power. pic.twitter.com/N6zxt3ckZE
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) October 27, 2020
Years after both of them had retired, Shaquille O’Neal mentioned in an interview that the story of Robinson refusing to sign an autograph was false. That never happened and all this time there was no beef between the two legends.
Shaquille O’Neal made up the whole story
After sharing that story, Shaq went hard against Robinson whenever they faced each other. It always felt like the two had some issues with the way the former Los Angeles Lakers big man tried to get one over Robinson.
Shaq got his revenge when the Lakers faced the Spurs in 1997. It certainly felt like a dunk with some extra anger and energy as Robinson was one of the best defenders in the league. This moment was instrumental in Shaq’s rise to superstardom as the big man went on to help the Lakers to three consecutive titles a few years later.
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LOS ANGELES – JUNE 14: Guard Kobe Bryant #8, center Shaquille O’Neal #34, and forward Rick Fox #17 of the Los Angeles Lakers hold up their three championship trophies during the Lakers championship victory parade in Los Angeles, California on June 14, 2002. (Photo by Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)
One of the most shocking revelations of the recent past was when Shaq admitted to having made the whole thing up. In an interview with Earnie Johnson, Shaq said, “It is not true, I made it all up. Mr Robinson, I apologize.”
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Shaq and Robinson were arguably two of the best players of their time and have won multiple championships to show for it. The competitiveness that both of them showed while playing against each other always seemed to stem from the story Shaq had made up. But it all proved to be false as O’Neal confessed.
Written by
Edited by
Veer Badani