Gary Payton and Shaquille O’Neal were teammates during a frustrating and bumpy era in Lakers history, and then again during a busy few years in Miami. Still, it doesn’t mean they didn’t have some fun from time to time.
In an appearance on VLAD TV, the former NBA point guard detailed the story of a prank he once tried to pull on the Big Diesel, and how it resulted in a pair of the guy’s underwear being framed in his home years later.
“So I said, I gotta get him. So I got his drawers one day, and I took them and he had to wear underneath them underneath his thing and be freeballing all the time, right. But we messed up his pants, so he didn’t have no drawers because he was trying to find his drawers and I had them, you know what I’m saying. So he had to ride a towel around him and Shaq don’t care, he’ll go outside with the towel on, everything.”
“He was just doing all kinds of. He’d get in his truck, ride around the thing and then he’d throw the towel out and he’d be freeballing. So I used to keep all the shorts and pair of drawers and all that stuff.”
Pranks are a regular and common occurrence in an NBA locker room. For a guy like O’Neal, who is notorious for being over the top, one can only imagine what kind of shenanigans he was involved in during his days in the league.
At the very least, it seems Shaq could take just as good as he gave, and it’s clear that some of his teammates had no problem getting him back.
Today, O’Neal usually sticks to harassing Charles Barkley and the rest of the NBA on TNT crew, but it’s still fun to hear of what he was up to years ago.
