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Shaq on Lakers vs Clippers, Kobe Bryant & Charles Barkley

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Shaq sat down with Jimmy Kimmel and made it clear the Lakers still run his heart, even with the Clippers suddenly stacked.

Shaquille O’Neal stopped by ABC’s “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on July 16, 2019, fresh off the most dramatic week of the NBA offseason, and he wasn’t shy about picking a side. With Anthony Davis now wearing purple and gold and Kawhi Leonard pairing up with Paul George across the hall at Staples Center, Shaq gave his honest read on the new Los Angeles basketball order — then pivoted into restaurant talk, a McDonald’s prank story, and an update on his son Shareef’s recovery from open-heart surgery.

• Shaq weighed in on the new Staples Center rivalry after Anthony Davis joined the Lakers and Kawhi Leonard teamed with Paul George on the Clippers, staying loyal to his old franchise despite respecting the Clippers’ new roster.
• He joked about his long-running on-air “feud” with Charles Barkley on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” and revealed his downtown L.A. restaurant, Shaquille’s, sells a Kobe beef burger named the “Kobe Burger” in honor of Kobe Bryant.
• Shaq shared that his son Shareef O’Neal recently had open-heart surgery for a congenital heart defect and got a tattoo of his father, and Kimmel ran a round of urban legends for Shaq to confirm or shoot down, including the story of Shaq getting fired from McDonald’s for a teenage prank.

The New Staples Center Rivalry

Shaq didn’t need much prompting to get into it. With Davis landing in L.A. to team up with LeBron James, and Kawhi Leonard turning around and recruiting Paul George to the Clippers days later, the two Staples Center tenants suddenly looked like legitimate title contenders in the same building. Shaq gave the Clippers their due — a deep, talented roster built to win now — but he wasn’t about to talk down his own franchise’s pedigree on national television.

His loyalty tracked with his history. Shaq anchored the Lakers from 1996 to 2004, and his run alongside Kobe Bryant produced three straight championships from 2000 through 2002. That’s the résumé he leaned on with Kimmel — not spin, just a Hall of Famer pointing at banners.

Shaq and Barkley’s On-Air Act

Kimmel pushed Shaq on his supposed beef with Charles Barkley, his broadcast partner on TNT’s “Inside the NBA,” and Shaq played right into it, cracking jokes about how deeply Barkley gets under his skin during tapings. It’s the same act longtime viewers of the show recognize — two Hall of Famers ribbing each other for a living, dressed up as a real grudge for laughs. It’s the kind of on-camera dynamic that’s launched plenty of segments elsewhere about celebrities whose friendly banter gets mistaken for real animosity, and Shaq made clear his and Barkley’s version is strictly for entertainment.

Shaquille’s and the Kobe Burger

Shaq also used the appearance to plug Shaquille’s, his restaurant at L.A. Live sitting directly across from Staples Center. The menu leans into his basketball roots, and the standout item is the “Kobe Burger” — made with premium Kobe beef and named for his former Lakers teammate. It’s a wink at their well-documented history, the friction included, wrapped into a tribute on a menu he now controls himself.

The Kobe Burger is made with actual Kobe beef — Shaq’s way of honoring Bryant and getting a laugh at the same time.

Family Update: Shareef’s Surgery and a McDonald’s Myth

The conversation turned personal when Kimmel asked about Shareef O’Neal, Shaq’s son and a college basketball player who had recently undergone open-heart surgery to correct a congenital heart defect. Shaq gave an emotional update on his son’s recovery and mentioned that Shareef had gotten a tattoo of his father as a tribute — a moment that landed as the most sincere stretch of an otherwise loose, joke-filled interview.

From there, Kimmel ran through a batch of Shaq urban legends for him to confirm or kill. One of the standouts: the story that teenage Shaq got fired from a McDonald’s job after getting caught pulling a prank on the clock. Shaq confirmed it happened, and the anecdote fit the tone of the whole sit-down — a legend of the sport, thoroughly unbothered about laughing at himself.

Shaq’s next stop is TNT’s studio come opening week of the NBA season, where Davis debuts in purple and gold and Kawhi and PG make their Clippers debut across the hall — and where Barkley will be waiting with a fresh round of material to needle him with.