Dwight Howard has a lot on his plate right now, and it’s both good and bad. While the new Basketball Hall of Fame-nominated Howard has announced his engagement to rapper Amy Luciani, he’s also dealing with new issues involving his ex-girlfriend Royce Reed. On top of that, his old enemy Shaquille O’Neal has reemerged, and a refreshed rivalry between them has added fuel to the fire. As the ex-NBA player juggles all of this, an old incident has resurfaced.

On multiple occasions, Reed has expressed her complaints about Howard. In an interview last year with Carlos King, Reed shared a shocking revelation about Howard’s old enemy, the 4-time NBA champion as well. She claimed that he had sent her flirtatious messages. Shockingly, this allegedly occurred while O’Neal was married to his ex-wife Shaunie Henderson.

What did Royce Reed claim about Shaquille O’Neal?

But there’s more to the story. During the interview, Reed claimed that O’Neal had been flirting with her since the time she worked for the Miami Heat. She was a cheerleader for the team during the 2006–07 NBA season. Furthermore, she also revealed those texts to Shaunie. “I had sent her a thread where her ex-husband had been texting me,” she said.

This was during her time on Basketball Wives. Reed appeared on the show for four years, from 2010 to 2013. “Nothing ever happened. He actually cursed me out cause I didn’t want to talk to him. I wanted everything out to be in the open. I wanted her to see everything so if anything happened or said, she’d knew it wasn’t true,” Reed said on the show. 

“This was when I was dancing. It came down to how he got your number, and he had gotten it from one of the ball boys. How did the ball boy get my number? Because we used to all go out and hang at parties like we were cool,” Reed further explained. 

The revelation quickly made headlines and eventually reached Shaq. The ‘Big Diesel’ responded to it in an Instagram post by The Neighborhood Talk featuring Reed’s clip making the claims. He seemingly denied the assertions, suggesting that Reed’s claims were influenced by money. “Uh somebody needs money,” Shaq responded.

While this incident between O’Neal and Reed is in the past, the beefing between Howard and the 4x NBA champ isn’t over. 

The beefing between Shaquille O’Neal and Dwight Howard

There have, of course, been several incidents of tension between the two. From O’Neal’s claims that Howard stole his nickname, ‘Superman,’ the disputes have continued, with the latter denying the accusations. Just recently, Howard made an appearance on The Gauds Show to clarify his stance once again. Howard mentioned that he never wanted to be like Shaq. 

Moreover, even when the Orlando Magic traded him to the Los Angeles Lakers, he shared that he didn’t want to go. That was because people would think he wanted to be like Shaq and follow in his footsteps. 

He further added, “I said ‘Hey man, do you mind sending Shaq a message? You know, trying to figure out like you what’s up? Can we have a sit down conversation? Because every conversation or every time I hear or see something about you is you disrespecting me on some type of level. And at this point, I’m like, ‘Do we need to throw hands?’,” He has been addressing this for quite a while now. 

While O’Neal usually stays silent, this time he did not. Taking to social media, the big man issued an ultimatum. Shaq claimed that he would no longer talk about Howard. Explaining his reason, O’Neal referred to Howard as a “big sensitive man” and called him out.

“@DwightHoward the fact u think I care about u is funny, but I won’t ever bring your name up again sensitive big man, a jokester that can’t take a joke. Won’t ever say your name again ever again. Have a great day and now u have been deleted. Have a great day,” he said.

It remains to be seen how long O’Neal keeps his word. But until then, Howard will certainly be more occupied with his battle with Reed.

What is going on between Dwight Howard and Royce Reed? 

Howard kicked off the new year with an exciting vacation in Thailand. At the same time, his ex-girlfriend Reed has created a new Instagram account named ‘Ihadababybysuperman,’ sharing clips in which she reveals details about her past relationship. She also made several accusations. One was that her ex had stopped her from working for her dream teams. While she didn’t mention any names, the nickname ‘Superman’ hints it is likely Howard.

Howard, too, didn’t mention any names when he appeared on The Gauds Show. He spoke about providing child support and shared more about his son. Before that, Howard wished nothing but the best for his ex-girlfriend.

Rolling into the new year, there’s much more drama that Howard needs to look forward to.