With the second spherical of the NBA Playoffs in full swing, seasoned primetime league commentator and NBA Champion Shaquille O’Neal seems to be dwelling out a scene from the 2000s movie Love & Basketball.
On Tuesday (Could 7), an excerpt from his ex-wife Shaunie Henderson’s new memoir Undefeated: Altering the Guidelines and Profitable On My Personal Phrases, started circulating on-line. In it, she confesses that she wasn’t essentially in love with Shaq throughout their nine-year union. As a substitute, it seems as if Shaunie was drawn to the approach to life and their household, relatively than their dedication to one another as husband and spouse.
“Wanting again, I don’t know that I used to be ever actually in love with the person, however I used to be in love with the thought of being married to the person I had a household with,” Shaunie wrote within the memoir. “I used to be in love with the thought of constructing a life collectively. I actually did take pleasure in spending time with him. [NBA] street journeys allowed me to be with my husband and expertise the NBA life for a short while.”
Once more, although Shaq is at present tied up in his submit internet hosting for NBA On TNT because the Playoffs proceed, he seems to have come throughout Shaunie’s statements from the memoir and subsequently issued a press release on Instagram.
“I perceive…” Shaq wrote in a reel he shared. “I wouldn’t have been in love with me both. Wishing you all one of the best… All love Shaq [Heart emoji].”
A lot of outstanding Hip-Hop artists, together with DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia and Rick Ross, hopped within the remark part of the submit to point out Shaq some love. Moreover, Shaunie and Shaq’s son, Shareef O’Neal, additionally voiced his opinion within the feedback of the submit, the place he wrote, “Actually essentially the most lovable and likable individual on the planet!”
In one other excerpt from the memoir, Shaunie does seem to sympathize with Shaq, remarking on how troublesome it should’ve been for him to navigate life as a husband and father whereas additionally being one of many greatest names in skilled sports activities.
“He was attempting to be a world-famous, thirty-something multimillionaire with hundreds of ladies throwing themselves at him, and other people basically begging simply to be in his presence, whereas being a husband and a father concurrently,” she added. “How might anybody probably know the way to try this?”