Shaquille O’Neal may be a legend, but don’t call him a “celebrity.”
While exclusively chatting with Page Six in a new interview, the Los Angeles Lakers legend explained why he considers himself “a regular person” and doesn’t want to be placed “in that category.”
“Excuse my French, celebrities are a–holes,” O’Neal, 54, said, telling us that he thinks they’re “weird, rude and obnoxious.”
While O’Neal — aka Shaq — may not consider himself an A-lister, he’s certainly a household name.
After retiring from the NBA in 2011 following 19 seasons with the league, the basketball MVP has done everything from branching out into music to hosting star-studded Super Bowl events, analyzing sports on “Inside the NBA” and plenty more.
His latest project? Executive producing an all-new true crime series titled “Game Day Murders.”
“I’ve been a sports guy, I’ve been a true crime guy, and finally, we’re going to merge the two together,” Shaq, a self-proclaimed “true crime junkie,” exclusively told Page Six. “[I like it because] everybody has that detective in them.”
Shaq told us that when he watches one of the “Rocky” movies, for example, “I know he may lose…and if he does lose, he’s gonna go through this crazy comeback, and he’s going to win the last fight.”
On the other hand, when he watches true crime, “You don’t know what’s gonna happen.”
The athlete told us his “Game Day Murders” project is centered around crime in the world of sports – both at the collegiate and professional level.
Shaq clarified to Page Six that the show is not trying to “sensationalize” the victims or tragedies in any way, but to approach the stories with “respect.”
“Our goal was to honor the legacy of those who lost their lives,” he said — and to show viewers “how we all could band together in tough times.”
Shaq noted that some of the biggest stories in sports aren’t just “what happened on the field or the court,” but what can happen “after the final whistle.”
For instance, Shaq had a memorable incident of his own in 1999 when he blocked fellow NBA star Vince Carter from a dunk and knocked him over.
Off the court, Carter’s mother was spotted scolding Shaq at the time.
“She said if I hurt her baby, she was gonna beat me up,” he recalled to Page Six.
Flash forward to today, Shaq and Carter have reunited for “Dunkman,” another show that Shaq is currently executive producing.
He told us that he didn’t encounter Carter’s mom again while they were making it, but joked that she “made a good point” back in the day.
“She didn’t want me to hurt her baby. And I understood. I will never disrespect anybody’s mom,” he explained.
“But Vince knew better than to try to dunk on me. I always told anybody that dunked on me, I’m gonna have to lay them out!”
Although Shaq has been retired for over a decade, his former teammate LeBron James is still going strong at 41. He recently shocked the sports world in June when he announced he was leaving the Lakers after eight seasons.
When asked about where James should go, Shaq advised him to “Go where you can win.”
“When it’s over for us, it’s over. You never want to sit back and say, ‘I shoulda, I coulda, I woulda.”
“Dunkman” airs on TNT Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET and streams on HBO Max. “Game Day Murders” premieres on Monday, July 27, at 10 pm ET on ID, and streams on HBO Max.
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