Shaquille O’Neal Spills on Whether NBA Players Are Really Picking Up Women During Road Trips

The former NBA star explained what the “tiger lifestyle” entailed and why his relationships “failed”

Shaquille O’Neal at the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfronts on May 14, 2025.Credit : Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Shaquille O’Neal is addressing one of the NBA’s longtime rumors.

On the latest episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, the former basketball star was asked about the lifestyle NBA stars live on the road — particularly when it comes to women.

“Every city you go to, the women are looking for you,” co-host Adam Lefkoe said.

O’Neal, 53, quickly denied that claim, saying, “That’s a myth.”

“I’ve been in a lot of lobbies, I didn’t see anybody,” the four-time NBA champion said. “So, I remember I was coming in, they did this Esquire article about how the girls would be waiting out. So, I was looking for that. Never happened. Never happened.”

O’Neal cheekily added: “Trust me, I was the baddest on the road. It never happened.”

Shaquille O’Neal shoots free throws on March 7, 2001.Vince Compagnone/Los Angeles Times via Getty

The former Lakers star then explained the “tiger lifestyle” and why NBA players have a hard time making romantic relationships work after their competitive careers end. “When you live a certain lifestyle, and then it all shuts down, you only know what you know,” O’Neal said.

“So, if you don’t know the rules of commitment, it’ll never work, and then, you know, us being not committed, everything is an excuse,” he said.

O’Neal, who has been open about his past infidelity in his marriage to Shaunie Henderson, continued, “Once I say, ‘You’re my girlfriend,’ do your job as a man. Everything else is an excuse…Once I say I commit to you, I’m supposed to do that as a man. I didn’t do that. That’s why all s— has always failed.”

He went on to say that athletes who formerly lived “a tiger lifestyle” can’t be tamed. “If you live a tiger lifestyle and then you try to become a tame tiger, it ain’t going to work. It’s not going to work.”

In his 2011 memoir Shaq Uncut: My Story, the basketball great admitted to cheating on his ex-wife Shaunie over the course of their relationship, which began in the late 1990s and ultimately ended in 2009 when Henderson filed for separation.

Shaquille O’Neal and Shaunie O’Neal at Muhammad Ali’s Celebrity Fight Night XIV on April 5, 2008 in Scottsdale, Arizona.Michael Caulfield/WireImage

In October 2024, O’Neal told WNBA star Angel Reese he knows he’s going “to end up alone” when the Chicago Sky star asked if he would ever “get married again” on her podcast Unapologetically Angel.

O’Neal said he’ll end up alone “because y’all be making rules up as you go along,” on the episode. “There’s no handbook on how to be the perfect man or perfect husband.”

He went on to explain his frustration for what qualifies as “cheating” in relationships, and why he runs into trouble. “If I’m not physically seeing somebody — me, the Diesel — and I’m with you everyday and you know my schedule, it shouldn’t matter what I’m doing on my phone. It’s not cheating. And then you can’t tell me that’s worse than cheating. It’s not. I just don’t understand that.”

When Reese told him she hopes he finds a “lovely woman” in the future, O’Neal said, “Nobody can understand me because I’m weird.”