Shaquille O’Neal’s brilliance off NBA hardwood has been on full display for decades now given just how business savvy he is. His endless list of investments and endorsements have led to him creating a $400 million+ net worth for himself. However, while Shaq may be intelligent with where he puts his money, he doesn’t know everything. Unfortunately for him, FTX crashing and burning with them mishandling $8.9 billion worth of user funds led to Shaq cheekily ‘blaming’ Stephen Curry for the debacle.
FTX, a cryptocurrency company, called for bankruptcy in early November when it was revealed to its investors that they had been misusing their customers’ funds and moving their money between entities. The investors sued both the company and any celebrity endorsers of FTX, which included the likes of Shaq, Curry, and Tom Brady.
Shaquille O’Neal received the brunt end of a lot of criticism because he openly endorsed the company in a commercial. According to him however, he was just that. A celebrity who endorsed the company and had no financial tie-ins with them beyond getting paid to appear in an advertisement.
Shaquille O’Neal makes a snarky remark towards Stephen Curry regarding FTX
Stephen Curry joined the TNT broadcast for a short while during tonight’s Game 4 between the Miami Heat and the Boston Celtics after he won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Award. In his time on air, the Shaquille O’Neal would hilariously compliment him and then accuse him of getting him in trouble.
“You’re my favorite player I just wanted to say congratulations my brother and thanks for getting me in trouble. Don’t say nothing,” said Shaq to Curry on ‘Inside the NBA’.
It’s quite obvious that he’s referring to the fact that they both had lawsuits placed against them for the FTX scandal as they were one of the few superstar athletes involved in it. Given the volatility of the situation, Shaq, while trying to make a joke of the situation, genuinely didn’t want Steph to say anything regarding it out of fear of it being used against him in the future.
Shaq is reportedly hiding from lawyers
Frustrations are boiling over as lawyers who represent investors in FTX haven’t been able to meet Shaquille O’Neal face-to-face. They have reportedly tried to get in touch with him both at him residence and the TNT Studio, failing in doing so on both accounts.
According to a few reports, the lawyers got so fed up with him evading them that they threw the legal papers at his SUV as it sped away from them. A lawsuit cannot begin without proper communication being established and that hasn’t happened yet so technically, the Hall-of-Fame center has not had a lawsuit filed against yet
