"I said I was gonna just take my stuff, but I was gonna fu-k Mitch Kupchak up" - Shaquille O'Neal reveals how he found out about his Lakers trade while eating cereal

During his time with the Los Angeles Lakers, Shaquille O’Neal was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most dominant player in the Association. He won literally everything, from the 2000 MVP award to three straight championships and Finals MVPs, dominating in his signature fashion every step of the way.

For nearly a decade, eight campaigns to be precise, the Lakers had the most unstoppable force in basketball, and they sure capitalized on it.

Yet as history has often shown, even dynasties, no matter how good they are on the hardwood, don’t last forever.

Shaq on finding out he was getting shipped

Things went south very quickly when all the tension behind the glitz and glamor boiled over after the Lakers got “humiliated” by an underdog Detroit Pistons squad in the 2004 Finals. It was after that defeat that the front office in LA understood they had to, for lack of better terminology, get rid of Shaq. The franchise made its choice to move forward with the younger, hungrier option in Kobe Bryant, who couldn’t continue to coexist in the big man’s shadow.

Sure, the NBA can be a ruthless business sometimes, and even superstars are not immune to it — we saw this firsthand just last campaign with Luka Doncic getting booted out of Dallas — but such was the case with O’Neal in ’04. And the way he found out about the trade only added insult to injury.

“Actually, I was eating cereal and found out I got traded. Frosty flakes,” Shaq said in his recent appearance on “STRAIGHT GAME PODCAST.”

“I was eating Frosty Flakes, watching ESPN, listening to what people are saying, and they said, ‘Mitch Kupchak said he will take offers on Shaq.’ So, I told my agent to call him, and they said they are going to trade me,” the retired big man pointed out.

The “betrayal” stung, no doubt about that, but to hear the news while eating Frosted Flakes? That was a level of disrespect that even someone like Shaq couldn’t just forget that easily.

However, that was not the end of the drama, as the three-time Finals MVP wanted to confront the Purple and Gold GM physically.

“I got in my police car and went there, but they were not going to let me in, because I was gonna fu-k Mitch up… I said I was gonna just take my stuff, but I was gonna fu-k Mitch Kupchak up, I promise you,” he added.

Shaq got one with the Heat

Deep down, O’Neal knew his time in Los Angeles had run its course. The Kobe-Shaq partnership had produced unforgettable highs, but the writing was already on the wall. The only thing the Diesel didn’t expect was that it would all happen without so much as a phone call.

“I understand the business, but show me a little more respect,” The Big Diesel concluded.

Kupchak pulled the trigger and traded him to the Miami Heat in exchange for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant and a future first-rounder.

The move, quite literally, shifted the balance of power in the league. The Western Conference was now wide open for the taking and the Heat got a proven winner to pair up with their young superstar.

Shaq went on to win another championship in South Beach in 2006 alongside Dwyane Wade, proving he still had plenty left in the tank. Kupchak, meanwhile, could probably breathe easier knowing the 7-foot-1 behemoth was held at the door that day.

And the Hall of Fame center probably still thinks about it when he has a bowl of his favorite cereal.

This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Aug 27, 2025, where it first appeared in the Latest News section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

“I said I was gonna just take my stuff, but I was gonna fu-k Mitch Kupchak up” – Shaquille O’Neal reveals how he found out about his Lakers trade while eating cereal

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