What Is Upload With Shaquille O’Neal? 3 Facts About Shaq’s Venture That Pushed Him to Apologize Publicly

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal owns multiple businesses and has tried his hands at various industries over the years. From car washes to pizzas, and to the entertainment industry, O’Neal has seen it all. With his impressive entrepreneurship, the 4x NBA champion has built a business empire. However, not everything went according to plan and he would be the first to agree. The Big Aristotle recently discussed one such venture during a recent episode of the Big Podcast with Shaq when he hosted comedian Gary Owen.

The endeavor was called Upload with Shaquille O’Neal. Here are three facts about it. What was it? It was a comedy TV series which premiered in 2013. The first season had 10 episodes and a different guest comedian joined the crew for each episode. It was arguably the prequel of Shaqtin‘ a Fool when the team reacted to some of the funniest video clips that went viral from around the world. Who was mainly involved? The show starred Shaq, alongside comedians Gary Owen, Godfrey, and Rachel Feinstein.

What happened? It was announced the show will be back with six new episodes in 2014. But they were never released. Apparently, the series was not as popular as everyone expected it would be and the views dwindled. So, the cable channel pulled the plug.

At least, that was what everyone thought. However, it looks like there is more to it. The 2000 NBA MVP dove into the whole situation during the sit-down with Owen. Furthermore, O’Neal even apologized for his actions.

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Shaquille O’Neal revealed the reason to Gary Owen

Shaq, out of nowhere, revealed to Gary Owen that he owed him an apology during the chat. Owen scoffed, “Please!” O’Neal stated, “I wanna apologize for firing you of ‘Upload’.” The comedian asked whether O’Neal knew that he was fired from the show. The Los Angeles Lakers legend replied with a straight face, “I fired you!”

But Owen could not believe it. So, O’Neal had to remind him that it was his show. The 49-year-old exclaimed, “Did you fire me you mo******er!” He then asked Shaq the reason behind it. The Hall of Famer noted that professional skateboarder Rob Dyrdek had the rights for the good clips which did not help the Upload crew.

He disclosed, “So, Rob Dyrdek, I guess he owns the rights to most of the good clips and we weren’t good clips so…The show was cool but it wasn’t cool enough.” 

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However, Owen was still confused as to why Big Diesel fired him. O’Neal replied that he had to fire the comedian first so that he could then fire himself and call off the TV series.