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Shaquille O’Neal Smitten by “Beautiful Girl Sitting Behind Will Smith” at the Oscars

Published 04/03/2022, 10:36 AM EDT

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Shaquille O’Neal is free-spirited. He has always put his views forward whether it is on Inside the NBA on TNT, in interviews, or in his podcast. He has always been open and straightforward with his opinions on whatever goes on in the world. When Will Smith slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars after Chris made a joke about Will’s wife Jada, Shaq agreed with Will’s actions. 

Shaq was pretty strong in his opinion and his support towards Will Smith. In his podcast, he admitted that he would have done the same. He revealed that he had done something similar for his wife when he was married. Apart from his views on the Slapgate incident, one more person attracted Shaq’s attention.

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Shaquille O’Neal compliments Lupita Nyong’o

On The Big Podcast with Shaq, the recent episode The Big Oscar Winner consisted of all the opinions and conversations about the events that happened around Will Smith slapping Chris Rock. Spice Adams and Nischelle Turner joined Shaq, as usual, to converse about the most trending thing in the past few days.

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Apart from the slap itself, they also talked about the reactions of other celebrities present at the Oscars and how it had affected the other winners. Shaq also had special compliments for the former Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong’o.

“Who’s the beautiful girl sitting behind Will? Was that the girl from Black Panther?” Nischelle confirmed that it was indeed the Black Panther star, Lupita Nyong’o. Shaq continued, “Cause I was like, she looked like a queen.”

The 12 Years a Slave, award winner and Black Panther actress Lupita Nyong’o did sparkle in her golden dress. Moreover, she also gave us one of the best reactions to the slap.

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Nischelle also made a point about the other Oscar winners before Shaq complimented Lupita. She said that the Slapgate incident took all the attention away from other winners. Samuel L Jackson also won an honorary Oscar the night before and was joined by Uma Thurman and John Travolta for the reunion of  Pulp Fiction.

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Spice Adams also praised how Chris Rock reacted after the slap and kept the show going. Shaq also agreed to Adams. Whether one’s views match Shaq’s or one thinks Will shouldn’t have done what he did, one has to agree that the Slapgate incident might just be the biggest altercation of 2022.

WATCH THIS STORY: NBA stars reacting to Will Smith slapping Chris Rock.

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Written by:

Chaitanya Sharma

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Chaitanya is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. He completed his engineering from SRM University. Having determined an interest in football and basketball, he was inclined towards having a job in the sports industry.
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Edited by:

Deepika Bhaduri