Shaquille O’Neal got in trouble over flat earth conspiracy

Shaquille O’Neal has made several controversial comments throughout his career, but only one got him a call from human resources.

On the latest episode of The Big Podcast, Shaq and guest David Spade agreed that Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin all-women spaceflight was a hoax. This prompted a discussion about other conspiracies, including O’Neal’s previously shared flat earth theory. Despite exposing himself as a flat earther, O’Neal has since claimed it was just a joke.

“I said that as a joke and the internet went freaking crazy on me,” O’Neal told Spade and co-host Adam Lefkoe. “I had a corporation I was working with…when I said that and it went viral, they actually called me in. And I had to talk to the HR department and they were talking about dropping me. I said, ‘You can drop me if you want, you’re still gonna have to pay me.’ They were like, ‘Yeah, we got a lot of hate mail.’ That’s when I knew the world was really shifting, especially listening to the comments.”

The company was a brand O’Neal had a sponsorship with, not TNT Sports, which employs The Big Aristotle as a basketball analyst. TNT has, however, created boundaries for employees, previously asking Charles Barkley to drop his ‘women of San Antonio’ bit. But we don’t know how they felt about O’Neal sharing flat earth theories on other platforms.

O’Neal first supported flat earth conspiracies in 2017, one month after Kyrie Irving admitted he believed the earth is flat. It was presumably then that O’Neal heard from the HR department. One week later, he issued a statement claiming it was just a joke.

But when asked about the theory while on an Australian radio show in 2022, O’Neal kind of supported it again by highlighting that on his 20-hour flight across the earth, the airplane went straight. “I didn’t tip over, I didn’t go upside down,” O’Neal said in defense of flat earth conspiracies.

By then, O’Neal and the company had already parted ways. After the company implied The Big Aristotle shouldn’t be sharing conspiracies like that, he pushed back, telling them if they can’t understand when he’s joking, then maybe they shouldn’t be partners. And today, they’re no longer partners, although O’Neal admits he still uses whatever product or service the unnamed company offers.

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