Shaquille O’Neal is 7-foot-1 and more than 300 pounds. Somehow he’s still managed to hide from process servers.
Edwin Garrison, an FTX investor from Oklahoma, filed a lawsuit against the cryptocurrency exchange and its celebrity endorsers after FTX declared bankruptcy. The suit named athletes including Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Naomi Osaka and Shaq.
According to Garrison’s lawyers, when process servers visited his house, O’Neal has refused to answer the door. An email to the defendants said O’Neal was dodging service “to draw out these proceedings, or to otherwise attempt to avoid answering for these allegations.”
O’Neal made a commercial for FTX where he declared he was “All-in!” on FTX. He also narrated an FTX ad starring Curry, who professes not to be an expert on cryptocurrency. It ends with O’Neal asking Curry to teach him to shoot free throws.
FTX also sponsored Shaq’s Fun House, a music event headlined by Lil Wayne and featuring O’Neal, AKA “DJ Diesel” manning the turntables.
O’Neal told CNBC he was “just a paid spokesperson” and not involved in the operations of the company. That may not keep him from being a defendant in this lawsuit, but at the moment, hiding in his house seems to be working. However, a Florida judge is considering removing O’Neal and Osaka from the lawsuit, and the planned October criminal trial for former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is likely to be pushed back.
Perhaps the lawyers could enlist the producers of “Inside the NBA” for help. Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley have repeatedly
pranked the big man over the years.
It would be an all-time prank if the crew managed to trick Shaq into thinking he was receiving an accolade — perhaps a certificate for being Most Dominant Ever — only to reveal he was actually being served with legal papers.
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