“Before Hookah Was Famous”: Shaquille O’Neal, Who Quit Alcohol Due to His Mother, Comes Clean on Major Rumor

Shaquille O’Neal did not have the healthiest diet during his playing days in the NBA. The 7’1 big man often indulged himself in fast food after team practices and that may have resulted in his prime getting over faster than expected. Nonetheless, the Big Aristotle made a big decision when he quit drinking alcohol in public due to his mother. However, there is one rumor that has lurked over Shaq’s head for quite some time now, and in his latest podcast, the 4x NBA champion finally opened up about it.

Shaquille O’Neal has often been made fun of for his love for Hookah by his co-hosts on Inside the NBA. But there was a reference to a ‘Sunshine Cafe’ that Shaq never spoke openly about, sending the wrong message in other people’s minds, until now.

Shaquille O’Neal opened up about the ‘Sunshine Cafe’

In the most recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, all three hosts talked about the exhilarating NBA Finals and some of the teams that had disappointing ends to their seasons in these playoffs. Eventually, the conversation was steered to a discussion that went down between Shaq and Spice Adams some time ago. Co-host Nischelle Turner mentioned how she finally knew what the ‘Sunshine Cafe’ was.

Turner was under the impression that ‘Sunshine Cafe’ referred to “a euphoric state of being in sunshine.” She felt it was something like a state of mind. However, the Los Angeles Lakers legend was quick to correct her by saying that it was a hookah bar. Shaq said, “Sunshine cafe is a hookah bar known as Babylon.”

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“That’s what it’s called now but this was before hookah was even as famous as it is now. I would go and I would just sit there and chill every day,” Shaq added. He further stated that he didn’t want to clearly specify it since he didn’t want people to know about his love for hookah. Nischelle was taken aback and reminded O’Neal that they gave the NBA legend a hookah on Christmas. “Yeah, but that don’t mean I’m gonna say I smoke it on the number 1 podcast in the world with a hundred million listeners,” replied Shaq.

Turner reminded fans of a hilarious moment on the podcast a few years ago when Shaq apparently choked while smoking the hookah. As the hosts laughed it off, Shaq quickly switched the subject back to Nischelle assuming ‘Sunshine Cafe’ was a woman. After she tried to justify her answer again, Shaq stopped her and said, “You know why you can never crack the code? Because there is no code to crack.”

Shaq’s love for hookah

Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t have many vices now. He used to drink alcohol with his father after championship games, but eventually stopped in order to protect his mother’s empire. Before that, Shaq was quite a junk food fanatic.

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However, one thing that has stuck with Shaq over the years is his love for hookah. This became so evident that even his co-hosts started to joke about it when Shaq took some time off Inside the NBA for his surgery.

So, it must’ve been a relief to Turner to finally know the actual truth about ‘sunshine cafe’ after jumping to her own conclusions and racking her brain all this time.