Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t mind getting dunked on for his costly self-care routine.
The former Los Angeles Laker recently confirmed on “The Big Podcast with Shaq” that he gets regular pedicures and loves having his toenails painted. O’Neal, who famously wears size 22 shoes, also revealed he pays a fortune for every session — because his feet “stink.”
“I give about $1,000 because I know my feet stink, I know they’re ugly and I like to paint them,” the 52-year-old NBA star explained on the podcast, adding: “I want it to look pretty. … That’s why I paint them.”
The four-time champion takes the topic of his feet in stride and even allowed his “NBA on TNT” colleagues to joke about them on air in 2017. While he denied getting pedicures at the time, O’Neal is now revealing the sweet origin of the tradition.
“One time I had a toenail that was torn off and I wasn’t going to play a game,” he said on the podcast. “And my mom was like, ‘Babe, why you not playing the game?’ I was like, ‘I tore my toenail off.’ So she did something, and then she put some red polish on the thing.”
“And I had 40 [points] that game,” O’Neal continued.
When asked if he prefers to have his toenails painted in solid colors or picks more elaborate patterns, the towering athlete stated plainly: “I do, like, sparkles and designs and all this stuff, you know, just to make it look pretty because I have ugly, stinky feet.”
While the subject of his feet isn’t new — O’Neal reportedly needed surgery to remove bone spurs from an arthritic toe in 2002 — it’s certainly stood the test of time. ESPN’s “SportsCenter” shared an Instagram video Wednesday, for instance, of O’Neal mid-pedi.
Sports fans have surely noticed that O’Neal isn’t the only athlete who paints his nails, as the revelation arrives mere days after football player Caleb Williams showed off his manicure at the 2024 NFL Draft — with an endearing explanation to boot.
“I’ve been doing it before college, but it took everybody by surprise, just because you don’t always see male athletes who play football paint their nails,” he told People in August. “But I think it’s just another way of expression.”
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