NBA pro Big Aristotle was a monster, NBA analyst Shaq is a menace, and DJ Diesel is a vibe. But director Shaquille O’Neal is a “Big Kid.” It served well when he directed his first series of commercials. However, in his real directorial debut, he was a bigger kid than the kids on set. This was way back in 1998 when Cousin Skeeter was a thing on Nickelodeon. One of the show’s star’s, Meagan Good was barely 17 then. It was well before she mixed up Shazam with Kazaam. And Shaq left quite the impression in their first encounter.

Before he had four NBA titles to his name, Shaq was brought on to direct episode 7 of Cousin Skeeter season 1. The episode titled Mo’ Better Skeeter is about the titular character ruining his cousin’s new song and their attempts to re-record it. In an old episode of The Big Podcast, Shaq lied he got an Emmy for it.

Not only was it a lie, Meagan Good exposed what director O’Neal was like on the set 26 years later. With Shaq’s frat bro, Anthony Anderson guest-hosting Jimmy Kimmel Live, Shaq stories were in abundance. Good recalled the first day of working with Shaq.

“He’s kind of directing and then it went from that to him kind of wearing these silly teeth,” Good narrated. And it gets better. “Until like the third or second day, he literally wasn’t directing anymore. He was just walking around doing pranks.” Considering Shaq spends his TNT job playing with the drone and bullying Charles Barkley instead of analysing games, it’s not hard to believe.

But the show must go on, as Good said the execs had to rein the giant director in. “And basically the producers had to come on, they had to be like, ‘hey, look we had to direct this, so we’re going to get it done okay?”

It definitely worked because the episode got made and aired, Shaq’s relations with Nickelodeon are still strong, and he got snubbed for an Emmy. However, director Shaq has not changed.

Shaq’s faux directorial debut

O’Neal’s on-camera work is longer than his Walmart shopping list a big part due to his uncountable commercials. In 2023, he went a step further. He not only starred in Sanofi’s ‘Icy Hot’ commercials, he directed them.

These commercials screamed Shaq’s signature silliness with a bobblehead version of himself pretending to be a kid. It went appropriately with his tagline, “My mom always says I’m just a big kid, and with the launch of new IcyHot Kids, now I actually am.” 

He shared the commercials on his official social media pages calling it his directorial debut. But like his Emmy fib, this is also off the mark. Meagan Good has the receipts.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.