The culture of hazing is pervasive across professions. On a positive note, it intends to strengthen the bond between veterans and rookies, especially in a dynamic sport like the NBA. As penned by Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the greatest NBA players, in The Guardian in ‘A letter to NBA rookies‘, even he was a part of such culture. His hazing was as light and simple as making Magic Johnson supply his New York Times. In this perspective, here we have another NBA veteran who has done something worth emulating. 

The Knuckleheads podcast featuring LaMarcus Aldridge is in the spotlight here. To cut a large story short, LaMarcus was with Miles in the Portland Trail Blazers as a rookie and is reminiscent of a time when he spent with the veterans in a club. He indeed looted from his veteran! Yes, you heard it right.

According to Aldridge’s accounts “At this time I’m a rookie, he threw me like two racks and was like ‘Go buy some drinks.'” With an element of humor, he goes on to say, “He ordered one drink, I went and got one drink. Put the rest of that money in my pocket and went home. I spent $25 on that drink, the other $1175 in my pocket and I went home. He didn’t even ask me for the money.” 

The catch is the way Darius responds to his “safe” revelation, “Look out for the rookies man you gotta look out for the rookies man to keep them right man.” Certainly, the ex-Cavs star has shown a generous reaction by not asking about the money, building the camaraderie. And this is exactly what the pioneers like Kareem might have meant for the hazing culture.

However, the extent to which veterans like Shaquille O’Neal bent this culture is something that could raise temples and turns out to be in sharp contrast to the revelation made by LaMarcus. !

The other face of NBA hazing

The way Shaq took over with hazing has made him infamous as a prankster, and no one would deny that he is one. While his teammates often took it for fun, sometimes, it crosses limits as recently revealed by his former teammates. You didn’t hear it, did you? 

It was Gary the ‘Glove‘ who played with the Big Diesel in the Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat who made the startling reveal this time. According to Gary Payton on the Vlad TV, “Shaq is a jokester, so if one of the rookies was in stall, he would take a bucket and use the bathroom in it for about a week, then all of a sudden he’d pour it on them.”

Nauseating as it might feel, the news is not fresh for the NBA circle, with the story revealed by Matt Barnes could keep you on your toes. How humiliating it could have been for Lou Amundson to know that he used a mouthpiece that has been in Shaq’s private part! The story of retaliations for staunch responses like the one given by Lou is yet another tale of the legend to ponder. See how such acts negate boundaries and hygiene compared with generosity from veterans like Darius. 

It was indeed conversations like the one between Darius, LaMarcus, and Quentin Richardson that contrasted the extremes offered by Shaq and his likes. Now that a brief glimpse into two events of a rookie-veteran relationship has been put out for review, exploring this exchange is worthwhile to get clarity.