Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal was quite the prankster during his playing career, and unfortunately for those around him, most of his pranks involved feces. Former Los Angeles Lakers equipment manager Rudy Garciduenas witnessed many of O’Neal’s pranks and shared one during an appearance on Byron Scott’s Fast Break podcast.
“I would get this bowl, and I would have cut up oranges for guys to snack on or whatnot, hydrate and do that kind of thing,” Garciduenas said. “So he ate the whole damn bowl… Next thing you know, he’s in the toilet.”
Co-host Byron Scott could only laugh as he realized this was yet another toilet story. Former Lakers head athletic trainer Gary Vitti had spoken about O’Neal throwing dirty toilet paper at him on this podcast in 2025. He was off target that day, but ensured he’d be successful here by stuffing it inside his former Lakers teammate Sean Rooks’ shoe.
“He loves the toilet,” Garciduenas said. “And so he comes out of the toilet, and I think it was right before the game. Nobody’s in the locker room. Guys are out shooting around. I don’t think there’s even media in the locker room, and he’s got used toilet paper in his hand, and he walks over to Sean Rooks’ locker and puts it in his shoe. And I’m like going, I want no part of this.”
Scott wanted to confirm if there was feces on it, and Garciduenas, who worked for the Lakers from 1983 to 2011, said there was. His silence meant Rooks would put on the shoe. He had socks on, but Scott acknowledged that was still nasty.
“Here I am in the middle of this, and this is two seven-footers wanting to fight each other,” Garciduenas said. “And Sean is the nicest guy ever. He has no temper. He literally has no temper, and he did not know what to do, but he wanted to kick Shaquille’s a**. And this is before a game, so you know you can’t kick nobody’s a**. Not even your teammates… He’s trying not to be mad, and he wants to be mad.
“He’s giving Shaq a mouthful,” Garciduenas added. “And Shaq’s just laughing his a** off. But there was karma.”
It’s not often that karma bites O’Neal in these stories. We have heard the infamous story about what he did with Lou Amundson’s toothbrush and mouthguard, and he seemingly got away scot-free. That might have been the case here, too, but O’Neal had eaten too many oranges.
“So, we get through this episode,” Garciduenas said. “Team goes out for the game. Shaquille immediately has to poop again. And he literally s*** his shorts on the floor… In The Forum, and he’s mouthing and yelling at me at the same time as he’s running into the locker room. So, I literally have to chase him into the locker room, and we’re going into the room, and he’s like, I s*** myself.”
Now, Garciduenas had known that Rooks, who was a Laker from 1996 to 1999, was going to need new shoes, so he was prepared. He couldn’t have anticipated what was going to happen to O’Neal, but he was able to give him everything he needed quickly to get back on the court before anyone could find out what had happened. Garciduenas saved O’Neal’s blushes that day, but he’s now shared the story with the whole world.
You’d imagine Rooks would have loved to hear this story, but he passed away on June 7, 2016, aged 46. Heart disease was likely the cause.
On hearing the news, O’Neal shared a picture of him holding Rooks on X and wrote, “Sean Rooks: Rest In Heaven My Friend!”
