{"id":713304,"date":"2026-04-18T16:33:33","date_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:33:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713304\/"},"modified":"2026-04-18T16:33:33","modified_gmt":"2026-04-18T16:33:33","slug":"shaquille-oneal-says-he-avoids-texting-nba-players-because-theyre-a-holes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/713304\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O&#8217;Neal says he avoids texting NBA players because they&#8217;re &#8216;a&#8211;holes&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!\n  <\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">If you\u2019re an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/nba\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NBA<\/a> player and think you might one day get a random text from Shaquille O\u2019Neal, don\u2019t get your hopes up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable\">O\u2019Neal, 54, doesn\u2019t reach out to NBA players from the past or present for one reason.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;None. I don\u2019t like athletes or superstars because they\u2019re a&#8211;holes,&#8221; O\u2019Neal told the <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/18\/sports\/shaq-doesnt-text-any-nba-players-because-theyre-a-holes\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New York Post.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/shaquille-oneal-2.jpg\" alt=\"Shaquille O'Neal watching the Dallas Mavericks versus Minnesota Timberwolves game at American Airlines Center\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Shaquille O&#8217;Neal watches the game between the Dallas Mavericks and the Minnesota Timberwolves in game four of the western conference finals for the 2024 NBA playoffs at American Airlines Center on May 28, 2024 in Dallas, Texas. (Jerome Miron\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n<p>The Basketball Hall of Famer said he denounced himself as a celebrity years ago for a similar reason.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I denounced myself from being a celebrity about 10 years ago because those people are weird. I\u2019m not weird,&#8221; O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/us\/us-regions\/northeast\/new-jersey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">New Jersey<\/a> native said he wants to treat people with respect and just be a regular guy. O\u2019Neal, despite his prowess as a basketball player, went to school after his playing career.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/sports\/nba-star-hits-back-nyc-mayor-zohran-mamdani-blaming-expensive-playoff-tickets\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">NBA STAR HITS BACK AT NYC MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI FOR BLAMING HIM OVER EXPENSIVE PLAYOFF TICKETS<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/nba-lakers-shaq-081825.jpg\" alt=\"Shaquille O'Neal arriving on the red carpet at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Dec 14, 2024; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Shaquille O&#8217;Neal arrives on the red carpet before the Emirates NBA Cup semifinal game at T-Mobile Arena. (Candice Ward\/Imagn Images)<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/category\/sports\/ncaa\/lsu-tigers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">left LSU<\/a> after his junior year to play in the NBA but returned to finish his bachelor&#8217;s degree. He also has an MBA and Ph.D in education, but people don\u2019t think he actually earned the &#8220;Dr.&#8221; before his name.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The funniest thing I get is, \u2018Oh it\u2019s honorary.\u2019 I say, \u2018No, it\u2019s not. I had to go to school and write papers and do all that stuff,&#8221; O\u2019Neal said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019m very super successful without that, but I wanted to stress to my children and children around that education is very important.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/foxnews.onelink.me\/xLDS?pid=AppArticleLink&amp;af_dp=foxnewsaf%3A%2F%2F&amp;af_web_dp=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fapps-products\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/a><\/p>\n<p> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/shaquille-oneal-1.jpg\" alt=\"Shaquille O'Neal looking on before NBA Finals game at TD Garden in Boston\" width=\"1200\" height=\"675\"\/> <\/p>\n<p>Shaquille O&#8217;Neal looks on before the game between the Boston Celtics and the Dallas Mavericks in game one of the 2024 NBA Finals at TD Garden on June 6, 2024 in Boston, Massachusetts. (David Butler II\/USA TODAY Sports)<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neal talked about the NIL era and how young athletes want the money first but don\u2019t have the education on how to the manage the money.<\/p>\n<p>O\u2019Neal thrived on the court, winning four NBA titles across his 19 seasons and making 15 All-Star teams, and appears to be thriving off the court as well.<\/p>\n<p>Follow Fox News Digital\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/FoxNewsSports_\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> sports coverage on X<\/a>, and subscribe to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\"> the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Ryan Canfield is a digital production assistant for Fox News Digital.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! If you\u2019re an NBA player and think you might one&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":78425,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[7,6,38233,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-713304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-ncaa-bk","11":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116426677914101006","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=713304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/713304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/78425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=713304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=713304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=713304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}