Real Reason Behind Shaquille O’Neal’s “Nuts*ck” Revenge on Ex-Teammate Revealed on Podcast

Any seasoned Shaq-lore historian would know that his friendship with Lou Amundson has survived a lot. The former teammates were the biggest pranksters and each other’s favorite victims. Before Charles Barkley became Shaq’s weekly victim, he pulled the prank of a century on Lou Amundson. The entire toe-curling debacle of hiding Lou Amundson’s mouthpiece under his “nuts*ck” that cemented Shaquille O’Neal’s status as the “worst teammate” was relived through Matt Barnes this month. What Barnes skipped was the backstory which Shaq provided this week on The Big Podcast because it’s apparently past the “statute of limitations” for Amundson to hold it against him.

“Me and Lou had this thing where we used to go back and forth so I used to mess with him.” Unlike Chuck though, Amundson was tough enough to mess right back. “ So, one time I had this pretty van that I just brought ,” Shaq referred to a converted ‘police van’ he drove around during his time in Phoenix Suns. “Everybody’s looking at me crazy. So as soon as I opened the door was filled with peanuts.“

Shaq missed a key detail that news outlets in 2009 didn’t, that is the van was filled with pink packing peanuts courtesy of Amundson. The video of Shaq cleaning packing peanuts of his van was a YouTube sensation then.

The big jokester got a taste of his own medicine while everyone laughed at him. He vowed vengeance on camera too and saw his chance when he saw his teammate’s mouthpiece lying around. Unlike how Barnes put it, Shaq apparently only wanted to hide it. “I was trying to put it in my thing and it got lost down that area and I couldn’t find it.”

He did find it on himself before a shower in a questionable spot. He put it back but threatened the team and staff to, “Don’t say nothing.” As history goes, Amundson finds his mouthpiece none the wiser and puts it in his mouth. As Shaq wanted, everyone was cracking up through Amundson wearing the mouthpiece the whole game. O’Neal didn’t even tell him right away. He instead dropped a backhanded compliment. “the way you played was nutso.” 

While Barnes, like most of us, thought Shaq was crazy for this stunt, he left out the finale. This was the hilarious end to Shaq’s year-long feud with Amundson.

Shaquille O’Neal meets a worthy opponent

Their back and forth made Shaq famous in Phoenix more than his game. O’Neal once got the whole team to pin Amundson down so he could chop off a famous blonde ponytail. In the end, the big man took pity on him and only got a tiny lock as a warning. Most of the time Shaq would hide the bike Lou rode to practice or leave only its frame without the wheels.

Neither the packing peanuts or the mouthpiece pranks could top the nuclear option Shaq took well before both incidents. O’Neal reportedly peed on Amundson’s shoes and he didn’t know till he put his feet into those sneakers. Yet it was the mouthguard episode that ended the prank war with Amundson telling Shaq, “You win.”

Lou Amundson was the most worthy opponent Prankster O’Neal could have. His bravado to take on the Shaquille O’Neal was ‘nuts.’