Shaquille O’Neal pulled back the curtain on NBA players in relationships and explained what it’s really like as a star player traveling from city to city.
During a recent installment of the NBA legend’s “The Big Podcast,” co-host Adam Lefkoe mentioned “every city you go to [as an NBA player], the women are looking for you.”
However, O’Neal said that “never happened” when he was in the league.
“That’s a myth,” the 53-year-old O’Neal said, “I’ve been in a lot of lobbies — I didn’t see anybody. So I remember I was coming in; they did this ‘Esquire’ article about how the girls would be waiting out. So, I was looking for that. Never happened. Never happened. Trust me, I was the baddest on the road. It never happened. You go and you see people.”
Former NBA guard Brandon Jennings, who was a guest on the show, agreed with O’Neal.
The Basketball Hall of Famer explained it was difficult to make relationships work while living “a tiger lifestyle” in the NBA.
“The problem with us is when you live a certain lifestyle, and then it all shuts down, you only know what you know,” O’Neal said. “So, if you don’t know the rules of commitment, it’ll never work. And then, you know, us being not committed, everything is an excuse. Because once you say to somebody, ‘I’m going to commit,’ you’ve got to do your f–king job as a man. Right?”
“Once I say, ‘You’re my girlfriend,’ do your job as a man. Everything else is an excuse. All that — there is so much into that. Once I say I commit to you, I’m supposed to do that as a man. I didn’t do that. That’s why all s–t has always failed.
“But if you live a tiger lifestyle and then you try to become a tame tiger — it ain’t going to work. It’s not going to work. So, you know, there’s a reason why the divorce rate is high. Because we live a — and not all of us — but like, we live a certain lifestyle. And a lot comes with it. And then when that’s all stopping, and you trying to go out and look for that, if you don’t understand their rules and understand their laws — it’ll never work.”
O’Neal has been open about his personal life on many occasions.
In 2023, he told singer Monica on her Apple Music Hits “Mo Talk Radio” that he had “two perfect women and I messed it up, just by, you know, being dumb.”
“My first one was my baby mother, Arnetta [Yardbourgh], and then I met [his now ex-wife] Shaunie [Nelson]. Shaunie was also a perfect woman and I messed it up,” he said.
“Yeah, you know, we were young and always just doing dumb stuff. But, the good thing about our relationship is that they forgave me and we have a good relationship now. But when you ask me about the perfect woman — I had two perfect women and I messed it up, just by, you know, being dumb.”
O’Neal was married to Shaunie, a former “Basketball Wives” star, for nine years before their divorce in 2011. They share four children: Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir and Me’arah.
Shaunie also had a son from a previous relationship named Myles, who later took on O’Neal’s surname.
During a 2023 appearance on “The Pivot” podcast, O’Neal said he “wasn’t protecting [Shaunie] and protecting those vows.”