NBA – Shaquille O’Neal sounds off on women and NBA players: «It’s a myth!»

Par Joël Pütz | Journaliste sportif

It’s not uncommon for NBA players to find themselves at the center of stories involving their personal lives… and therefore one, or even several, women. However, Shaquille O’Neal was keen to dispel a widespread misconception within the league, stating that it was false.

Everything changes when you become an NBA player, and not just on the court. Whether financially or in their everyday lives, basketball players sometimes tend to let loose once they arrive in the league. Some take advantage of this to multiply their female conquests, and we’re thinking in particular of Magic Johnson, who was rumored to have spent one night with six women at the same time.

Another good example is Wilt Chamberlain, who claims to have had intimate relations with… 20,000 women, no less. So you’d think that these women would tend to flock to NBA athletes, but Shaquille O’Neal has a very different opinion on the matter, as he recently explained on his podcast:

Shaq debunks popular rumor about women and the NBA

That’s a myth. I’ve been in a lot of lobbies — I didn’t see anybody. So I remember I was coming in; they did this Esquire article about how the girls would be waiting out. So I was looking for that. Never happened. Never happened. Trust me, I was in the battles on the road. It never happened.

The problem with us is when you live a certain lifestyle, and then it all shuts down, you only know what you know. So, if you don’t know the rules of commitment, it’ll never work. And then, you know, us being not committed, everything is an excuse. Because once you say to somebody, “I’m going to commit”, you’ve got to do your job as a man. Right?

Once I say, “You’re my girlfriend”, do your job as a man. Everything else is an excuse. All that — there is so much into that. Once I say I commit to you, I’m supposed to do that as a man. I didn’t do that. That’s why all mine always failed. But if you live a tiger lifestyle and then you try to become a tame tiger — it ain’t going to work.

It’s not going to work. So, you know, there’s a reason why the divorce rate is high. Because we live a — and not all of us — but like, you know, we live a certain lifestyle. And a lot comes with it. And then when that’s all stopping, and you trying to go out and look for that, if you don’t understand their rules and understand their laws — it’ll never work.