Shaquille O’Neal, Who Once Offered His Lakers Money to a Stripper, Mistook Iconic Greek Monument for a Nightclub

Shaquille O’Neal is a content goldmine. He was as entertaining off the court as he was on the court. His life was as colorful as the jerseys he wore throughout his NBA career. There is a lot of evidence to back up that claim. ESPN Magazine writer Ric Bucher wrote about a time he mistook a very famous Greek monument as a nightclub.

The writer recalled talking to him, one-on-one, when he was in his second year in Orlando. He was being labeled simply a big guy who dunked. He was genuinely touched that he got to talk with someone who saw him as more than that. Shaq apparently could quote Aristotle, but this is where things start to get out of hand. When he went to Greece with Team USA and was asked about the Parthenon, he thought it was a nightclub.

The Parthenon is obviously a very famous Grecian monument in Acropolis, Athens. It was formerly a temple dedicated to the warrior goddess Athena. To simply go so wrong is very much a Shaquille O’Neal thing to do. But he got a cool nickname- “Big Aristotle”.

But he has never advertised himself to be the smartest.

Shaquille O’Neal paid hush money during his Lakers tenure

According to his ex Lakers, teammate John Salley, Shaquille O’Neal used to pay his Lakers per diem money to strippers. He was paid around 930$ dollars per diem, like any other player, despite getting paid  $300,000 per game. But he could not care less about the money.

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When Salley was working on The Best Dam Sports Show, a woman was bragging about how she hung out with O’Neal and got shopping money from him. Hence, Salley went and talked to that woman. It turned out that Shaq gave the girl–who was a stripper–his per diem money to move away from his life. That year, O’Neal won the regular-season MVP Award and the Finals MVP.Moreover, he led the Lakers to their 12th NBA title in the year 2000.

The late Kobe Bryant too has alleged that O’Neal had paid up to $1 million in hush money to various women. Kobe claimed this when he was going through his own scandal. They had an intense feud which did last for a few years before things cooled down.

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Is Shaq’s life very entertaining? Can it be made into a movie? Discuss it in the comments below.