Chaos was guaranteed in the locker room if Shaquille O’Neal was on your team. We have heard one too many wild O’Neal stories over the years, and one of them involved him chasing Dorell Wright naked in the Miami Heat’s locker room. Heat legend Udonis Haslem witnessed that firsthand, and he called it the funniest locker room moment of his career during a recent Q&A session.
“When Shaq tried to fight D-Wright butt a** naked, and I had to break that s*** up,” Haslem said. “I’m like, hold on, big fella. Where we going? Like what we doing? Like we butt a** naked. Like you finna fight? Like right now? Like, come on, big fella. Like, don’t make me have to break this one up. Like, as a captain, I get it. I’m the captain, but I don’t want this job. Not today. Not today. Not today.
“I don’t want to be captain no more,” Haslem continued. “I don’t want to be captain no more. ‘Cause D-Wright was young. So, D-Wright know how to crack jokes and push your buttons. He was cracking them jokes and pushing Shaq buttons… Out of all times you want to get mad. Shaq the biggest playful motherf***er we know. Now you want to get mad in the shower, butt a** naked and fight?”
That is definitely a task no one would be interested in taking on. O’Neal once hilariously called fighting Wright naked his favorite moment from his time with the Heat. He also said at the time that Haslem did not want to break it up. It was just one of those days when he wished someone else were the team captain.
This was a story that was told in the Heat’s locker room even after O’Neal was traded to the Phoenix Suns in February 2008. Mario Chalmers arrived in Miami a few months later, and he revealed during an appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq that he had heard about it. O’Neal then hilariously explained his actions to Chalmers, and the story was a little bit different than Haslem’s.
“You got to understand that when I’m on a team, I’m the president, I am the emperor, so when you’re a rookie, do what the f*** I say, man, or I got to show you how to get down,” O’Neal said. “Like this was around the time you really could put hands on people… So I told him to do something; he didn’t do it. And like he’s also similar to me, ’cause he’s a f***ing jokester.
“He thought I was playing, so I said, ‘Yo man, I ain’t f***ing playing,'” O’Neal continued. “And I chased him around the locker room… I was butt naked. He was just getting out of the shower.”
O’Neal wanted to knock Wright’s head off. As he was about to grab his younger teammate, Haslem pleaded with him to stop by saying he did not want to break up a fight between two naked people. O’Neal claims it was only then that he realized he was naked and stopped.
Talk about an unforgettable locker room moment, just for the wrong reason.
