The irony is rich with this one, folks. Shaquille O’Neal had reportedly been dodging lawyers trying to serve him complaints in the FTX lawsuit after he appeared in commercials endorsing the crypto exchange company that has since gone bankrupt.
During an interview on Tuesday night with Stephen Curry, Shaq appeared to actually make a joke about the lawsuit. He congratulated Curry on winning the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice award, but then also awkwardly thanked him for “getting me in trouble,” which was both hilarious and also very cryptic.
Everyone assumed that this was in relation to the FTX lawsuit that Shaq had been dodging for months. The NBA on TNT big man previously said Curry was the only reason he began working with FTX.
What makes this even wilder is that, apparently, on the same night Shaq made this joke, he’d reportedly finally been served two complaints from the lawsuit, according to People.
The process server actually came to Shaq while at work at Kaseya Center — ironically, formerly known as FTX arena — and served him his papers, per Pro Football Talk.
Attorney Adam Moskowitz said the interaction was recorded by the server to eliminate any ambiguity.
“These claims now are very serious and thus it is good that we can start with the merits, instead of the silly service sideshow Mr. O’Neal unfortunately created,” Moskowitz said.
The irony here is palpable. This happened after Shaq made the joke to Curry. And, to top it all off, it all happened in the former FTX Arena.
shortly after this joke was made on national television, Shaq was then served for the FTX case per @ProFootballTalk. story below.
this alone would be comedy, until you realize it happened in what was called FTX Arena just a few months prior. tremendous sim. https://t.co/uFctbPojJM
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) May 24, 2023
That’s just wild. Shaq had reportedly been dodging process servers for months. They’ve reportedly come to his home, his work at TNT’s studios and even his ex-wife’s home in attempts to serve him. For it to happen like this is unreal.
O’Neal isn’t the only celebrity involved in this. Curry, obviously, is also included. But Tom Brady, Larry David, Naomi Osaka and even Gisele Bündchen also all promoted the crypto exchange in commercials.
Shaq has been in tons of commercials and endorsed lots of different products since retiring. Now, after this, maybe he’ll be a bit more judicious in that process.