Shaquille O’Neal shares a close bond with the Kelces and was even ready to mentor Travis on his music journey. About 1,000 guests were in attendance at Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce’s wedding. But the Big Aristotle wasn’t invited.

Speaking exclusively to People, Shaq was asked whether, like Charles Barkley, he had been invited. O’Neal responded, “No,” with a cheeky, “Thanks, Taylor. Thanks, Travis.” However, there was no love lost when it came to wishing the newlyweds.

“May it last forever!”

The messaging and sentiment are similar to what Shaquille O’Neal said when the news of the Kelce-Swift engagement broke the internet.

“I heard about it on the net, like everybody else, social media. I saw it, but a lot of times you can’t really believe it, so I reached out to a few people, and they said, ‘Yeah, it’s true,’ so it’s awesome. Can’t wait. I’m happy for him. I know Travis personally,” O’Neal had said at the time.”Listen, I’m all for it. May they last forever.”

Last year, Shaquille O’Neal made an appearance on the New Heights podcast, where he joined the Kelce brothers to celebrate Taylor Swift regaining the rights to her master recordings. The Lakers legend even broke into a rendition of “Trouble” and offered to teach Travis some DJ skills so he could open for Swift.

“Brother, I gotchu,” Shaq said to Travis. “You know what’s crazy? You, opening up for your girlfriend. Bro, you will be a f—— star. 10 minutes hyping up the crowd, oh my god.”

On the podcast, Shaquille O’Neal thanked Jason Kelce for introducing him to Taylor Swift, whom he’d met only once before, during the 2024 Super Bowl in Las Vegas. But despite that connection and the laughs shared on the podcast, it was Charles Barkley who ended up getting the invite.

Unlike Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley was invited to the wedding

The iconic Madison Square Garden was turned into a “fairy tale” like structure for the wedding. Last week, even Charles Barkley was asked about an invite, and he received it but decided not to attend it.

“I don’t go to weddings, that’s one,” Barkley said on Unfiltered. “I don’t go to weddings or funerals. But I did get an invite. I politely declined because I thought it was going to be a crap show. I love Travis and Jason, and I’ve only met Taylor one time, but yeah, I did get an invite. I said, ‘Hey, you know what? That’s just too much. I just want to hang out and play golf, and I don’t want to dress up and all that other stuff.’”

Charles Barkley shares a similarly close bond with the Kelces. As a lifelong Philadelphia Eagles fan, he’s friends with Jason Kelce and even golfs with the brothers regularly. That bond is likely what earned him the invite that Shaq missed out on. When the two finally cross paths, expect plenty of good-natured ribbing – Shaq and Chuck have never needed much of an excuse to pull each other’s leg.