You just know Shaquille O’Neal looked up how to say ‘Can you dig it’ in Polish because Poland did dig it. After a major Summer of Bass tour across Europe, Shaq flew across the pond again to Poland. He lit up the basketball-crazy fans of Warsaw with the ‘Hey, This Is Shaq’ charity event. Between launching Reebok’s new foray in Poland and deejaying to massive crowds there, O’Neal played a few hoops with future hoops stars and enjoyed a slam dunk contest. Unlike Mac McClung at the past Slam Dunk Contest, this attempt felt a teeny tiny bit short.

Gytis Masiulis of BasketNews gave a full rundown of ‘Hey, This Is Shaq’ during O’Neal’s recent trip to the country. Polish UFC champions Jan Blachowicz & Joanna Jedrzejczyk were present at the event where kids and some amateur basketball athletes flexed their talents.

One of the players was Rafal ‘Lipek’ Lipinski, med student by day and 5x FIBA World Dunk Champion the rest of the time. The last time he met Shaq, the 4x champion had scored 96 for his performance. It was nothing short of a similar score this time around. Initially, at least.

The 32-year-old was doing some impressive jumpers that in the NBA would be a poster dunk easily. He managed to do some acrobatic dunks over a guy who had half a foot over Shaq and a few kids too. Shaq, a connoisseur of a good slam dunk, was seated right below the basket and gave Lipek a high five each time.

But his attempt over 7’1 Shaq was an epic fail. The Polish player started strong but got stuck on Shaq’s shoulders and missed the rim. O’Neal stumbled forward but had a big grin on his face. Masiulis claimed, “I literally saw that coming from a mile away,” about that miss.

Masiulis claimed that Shaq didn’t want to stand there as a prop but we beg to differ. Despite the fail, Shaq shared the same dunk from a different angle on his Instagram page. And there he said, “This dunk was nutz.” It failed, but O’Neal appreciated it nonetheless.

However, unlike the two kids who were nailing jumpers beyond the arc, O’Neal didn’t invite Rafal back for a do-over. Shaq left the former athlete with great memories, though, that he was gushing about the experience on his own social media. And Shaq walked away with lasting memories of his own.

Shaq makes memories in Poland

Ahead of Angel Reese debuting Reebok’s first performance basketball show – Reebok Engine A – at Friday’s WNBA game, duties as the president of the basketball division brought O’Neal to Poland. Shaq launched Reebok in the European market through CCC with a grand appearance and an entire 360° DJ show.

The highlight of his trip was collaborating with the SK Foundation for the ‘Hey This Is Shaq’ campaign. It included the celebrity shootout game that left him exhilarated. He told Masiulis later, “I didn’t know what to expect, it’s my first time here. I haven’t played basketball in 15-20 years. So the fact that people love me… the people here were very, very nice. So I had no other alternatives than to be nice.” 

Poland and its ‘nice people’ won over Shaq. So they could expect another visit soon.