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Shaq Peeing In Lou Amundson’s Shoes Was The Most Innocent And Harmless Act Of His Disgusting Prank
Pranking teammates is present in every NBA (or other major sports) locker room, and mostly welcome. If done right, it strengthens the bond between teammates. Some pranks are really funny, some never get shared and some, are just overboard.
One of these pranks gone too far was the work of Gilbert Arenas. After his teammate Blatche threw his clothes in the jacuzzi, Arenas’ revenge was pooping in Andray Blatche’s shoe. Yes, you’ve read that correctly.
But it turns out that Agent Zero isn’t the only one who relieved himself off body fluid in the shoes of a teammate. Shaquille O’Neal apparently pulled a prank similar to Arenas’, but also even worse and more disgusting. During his time in Phoenix, Shaq got into a prank war with teammate Lou Amundson.
Per “The Dan Le Batard Show With Stugotz” local hour, transcribed by NBC Sports’ Dan Feldman:
“Shaq is the big prankster, the big joker. But if you do something against him, there’s no tit for tat. There’s tit for nuclear war.
He goes to Lou’s locker, grabs his sneakers, pees in them.
That’s the start, right? He then goes and let’s just say “messes with” some of Lou’s haircare devices, like his brush and his comb and stuff. Messes with them. Let me put it this way: Messes with them in a way that – I was comfortable telling you he peed in the shoes. I’m not comfortable telling you what he did to the hair stuff. And then this part, I will tell you: He tampers with Lou’s mouth guard.
He tampers with it.
He tampers with it.
Lou shows up at like 8 or whenever he usually shows up. And he’s skittish and nervous. And Suns.com is there like, “What do you think Shaq is going to do?” “I don’t know. I think he’s going to do something, though.”
So, I’ll never forget this. He’s sitting at the locker, and he opens – he starts to reach for the sneakers and then looks at them and says, “Nah, something doesn’t feel right.” Opens the door up, pulls out a fresh pair of sneakers for the last game of the year, right? Again, this is irregular behavior. Usually, you have a couple of sneakers. You break them in for the year, and you switch between two or three or three or four, whatever. So to break out a whole brand new pair … was weird.
Most of the time when you’re an NBA player, you don’t put on the mouth guard immediately. You have it in a case, and you give the case to the trainer. Then, you go out to the bench. Then, when you’re about to come into the game, that’s when you grab your mouthpiece.
There’s no funnier image than Alvin drawing up a play, kneeling down, coaches standing around him. Lou is sitting there, because now he’s in the game. The guys who are in the game are usually seated. Sitting there just staring at the clipboard, like, “OK, coach. I got you.” And everyone else is just staring at Lou. No one’s paying attention.
Puts the mouth guard in. One, two [sounds of disgust], takes the mouth guard out and flings it with tremendous accuracy at the bench. Everyone starts dying. I remember going back and watching the broadcast, “Oh, Suns bench seems to be getting a lot of fun.” They had no idea what’s happening.
One question remains though! What the hell did Shaq do to Amundson’s mouth guard?
