March 13, 2023 by Brian Warner
It’s not easy for Shaquille O’Neal to hide from anyone or anything. First of all, not only is he extremely famous, he is perhaps the most recognizable celebrity in the world. I see Shaq from time to time because his kids go to school across the street from where my dog goes to daycare. Even from a distance of 30-40 feet, Shaq is unmistakable. It’s simply impossible not to have your eyes drawn to the 7-foot-1,325-pound man stepping out of a giant Cadillac Escalade (decorated with a custom Super Man “S” grille). And as soon as he steps out of the Suburban, this behemoth is besieged by a man surrounded by half a dozen people asking for selfies.
As I said before, he is perhaps the most recognized celebrity in the world. And that’s been Shaq’s life every time he’s gone outside for the past 30 years. He just can’t hide from anything when he goes out in public. For example, here’s Shaq trying to hide from a paparazzi:
Ok, obviously he’s being cheeky in the above photo, but how does Shaq avoid being seen or found when he really doesn’t want to be seen or found?
These days, literally every other celebrity on the planet can go unrecognized for a week simply by wearing a hat and mask in public. To reiterate, Shaq is a 7-foot-1, 325-pound man who also has an extremely distinctive voice. A mask and a hat just won’t cut it.
So what does Shaq do to hide from something or someone when he really, really doesn’t want to be noticed? For example, a process server trying to serve it with a lawsuit related to the biggest crypto scandal of all time (so far)? Well, according to a recent complaint from a lawyer trying to do just that, Shaq is simply hiding out in his Texas mansion.
As first reported by Forbes, Shaq is one of a dozen celebrities named in a class action lawsuit filed in Florida last November following the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s disgraced crypto exchange FTX.
The person filing the lawsuit is an Oklahoma resident named Edwin Garrison, who claims he opened an FTX account (and presumably lost some money) after being “exposed” to the exchange thanks to numerous and inevitable celebrity endorsements. had been.
We’ve covered this many times before, but to recap: At its peak, FTX tapped more than a dozen celebrities to encourage exchanges in billboards, tweets, and commercials. Besides Shaq, here are some other big celebrities who have promoted FTX in some way:
Tom Brady Gisele Bundchen Steph Curry Naomi Osaka Trevor Lawrence Kevin O’Leary David Ortiz Shohei Ohtani Larry David
In exchange for an undisclosed but believed to be large amount of money and/or equity, Shaq threw an FTX party aboard a Carnival cruise ship (another sponsor of his), posted some pro-FTX tweets, and appeared in a commercial for the company Spitting out his now infamous “I’m in it, ya?” Slogan.
Ironically, the whole joke of the commercial is that it’s impossible not to recognize Shaq even when he’s in disguise. In the commercial, FTX tries to hide the identity of their exciting new ambassador, but the joke is that even with a voice modulator, a wig, and a blur effect, Shaq is unconcealable. It’s like the creative team brainstormed for 4 minutes and then went with the very first idea someone had. In fact, I’m sure that’s exactly what happened.
Back to the lawsuit and trying to serve Shaq…
Forbes recently came into possession of an email sent by attorneys representing “all of the FTX defendants and their attorneys” (aka Edwin Garrison’s attorneys speaking to the celebrity defendants). The short summary of the email (it’s long) is that the attorneys claim to have successfully served all of the prominent defendants except one: Shaq. Who appears to have gone to great lengths to avoid being served multiple times at his Texas mansion.
Here is part of the email:
“…we appreciate that many of you have been cooperative, proactively accepting service of the complaint and submitting your appearances. Others have been more difficult to service… However, only one has instead chosen to evade service in order to withdraw from these proceedings or otherwise attempt to evade a response to these allegations
… The only remaining defendant accepting service … is Mr. Shaquille O’Neal, who we know has discussed the existence of this case but appears to still be actively evading service and refusing to answer his front door , when addressed by our process officials.
In a follow-up interview with Forbes, one of the attorneys for the firm representing the alleged victims claimed:
“He admitted his friend Steph Curry called him, told him he could make millions of dollars just serving as an FTX brand ambassador, and lied in a TV commercial about being ‘all in’ at FTX when personally admitting that, he wouldn’t go anywhere near cryptocurrency.”
And while that sounds like a pretty inflammatory statement, Shaquille O’Neal sits at the helm of an advertising empire that has made him far more money in retirement than he ever made in the NBA.
Does Shaq really use all the products he recommends?
Is this a legal/contractual or even a moral requirement?
Does Shaq really take carnival cruises? Does he only drive Buicks and really use The General for his car insurance? Actually, I can tell you from personal experience that he drives a Cadillac Escalade in LA quite often. In fact, I have sneaky photo evidence:
Ultimately, service cannot be avoided in a court proceeding and it is better to simply tear off the patch.
Eventually Shaq will leave the house and the process server will crash.
Remember a few months back when Olivia Wilde was being served while she was giving a speech?! Allegedly by a bailiff representing her ex-husband Jason Sudekis in their ongoing custody battle. That was painful to watch. And that could very easily happen to Shaq at his next public event.
Bottom line: when it’s time to be served, don’t hide from it. Face it head-on. In other words: go “all in”.
