Shaquille O’Neal is arguably the most dominant force to ever step foot on an NBA court. At his peak with the Los Angeles Lakers where he won his MVP award and three straight NBA Championships, there was simply no one who could match his unbelievable combination of size, speed and athleticism.
It is why O’Neal remains one of the greatest players in NBA history. But at that size, and moving the way Shaq does, it puts a lot of pressure on his body and that will catch up as he gets older. The bones and muscles supporting O’Neal will eventually wear down and eventually he will need to go under the knife to fix up some things.
This was recently the case as the world found out thanks to Shaq himself tweeting out a picture of himself from the hospital bed watching his fellow Turner Sports crew in their coverage of the NCAA March Madness Tournament:
i’m always watching @TurnerSportsEJ and @Candace_Parker miss y’all pic.twitter.com/4tY4X6v1Pj
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 19, 2023
Of course the picture led to many questions as to why Shaq was in the hospital, but he would immediately ease everyone’s concerns by revealing he had hip replacement surgery in a signature Shaq way:
to all the people who are worried and concerned. first off , let me say thank you. And lastly no need to worry, just had to get some BBL WORK AKA #hipreplacement. Thanks and love you all. but no need to worry and yes i’m fine. pic.twitter.com/cnmLn58YDy
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) March 21, 2023
Shaq referring to hip replacement surgery as a BBL is simply something no one else could pull off and is just comical. Add in the accompanying gif with poor Rick Fox having to relive that moment of O’Neal having his bottom in his face during a Lakers Media Day and it immediately turns a concerning situation into one of laughter.
Leave it to Shaq to turn hip replacement into something like this, but it did accopmlish the goal of making sure nobody is worried about him as he recovers. Hopefully the process won’t be too long and Shaq will be back on camera soon continuing to make everyone laugh as only he can.
Anthony Davis expected to play both legs of Lakers’ back-to-back in April
Shaquille O’Neal is part of a long line of legendary Lakers centers and the latest addition to that group is current big man Anthony Davis. In an attempt to ensure Davis’ health, he has not been playing back-to-backs even though he is pain-free after a foot issue earlier in the season. But that won’t be the case in the team’s final one next month.
The latest report suggested that Davis had a choice of which back-to-back he was going to play and he chose the Lakers’ final one in April against the Los Angeles Clippers and Utah Jazz, which will be crucial to whether or not the Lakers find themselves in the playoffs.
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