When Shaquille O’Neal Was the Victim of a Mean Fool’s Day Prank

Four years ago, Shaquille O’Neal was the victim of a Fool’s Day prank that brought out a hilarious reaction from him.

On Inside the NBA, they were showing the top ten centers of all-time compiled by Bleacher Report. As per the original rankings, Bleacher had ranked Shaq on fourth. But the NBA on TNT made a few last-minute changes to pull off a prank on the former Los Angeles Lakers big man.

As the screen showed the rankings starting from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who was on top, Shaq had to wait for his name to appear which did not until the ninth place.

“I was about to tear the set up,” Shaq said after realizing it was a prank on him.

Shaquille O’Neal once considered Hakeem Olajuwon as the best center

Shaq shared the list of his favorite centers who played in the NBA during his playing days. Towards the end of his career, when O’Neal was a part of the Cleveland Cavaliers set-up, he said that Hakeem Olajuwon was his favorite center.

“He was the guy I couldn’t break,” he said about Olajuwon. “All the other great centers, I was able to get into.”

“Second one is Wilt Chamberlein,” Shaq said. “He is the father of downing the basketball. I could remember growing up, my father always (said) ‘I want you to be mean like Wilt. Every time you get it, dunk it. I want you to play defense like Bill (Russell). I want you to be smooth and finesse like Kareem.’

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell and Moses Malone were the next best big men in the NBA for Shaquille O’Neal.