Shaquille O’Neal and Steph Curry appear to have an inside joke about the infamous FTX lawsuit.
The Basketball Hall of Famer and the star Warriors point guard shared a laugh when Shaq cryptically hinted at Curry causing him trouble on Tuesday’s installment of “Inside the NBA.”
“You’re my favorite player,” Shaq told Curry, who appeared virtually on the show after the NBA announced that he won the Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Social Justice Champion Award for the first time in his career.
“I just want to say congratulations my brother and thanks for getting me in trouble. Don’t say nothing. Be quiet.”
Bloomberg reports that after multiple failed attempts, Shaq was served in the lawsuit Tuesday night during the coverage of the Heat-Celtics series.
Shaq and Curry then started laughing, and neither elaborated on the joke — which NBA Twitter speculated was about their alleged involvement in the FTX lawsuit that was made public last year.
It was the perfect moment for a transition from Charles Barkley, who asked about the eighth edition of The Match on June 29, 2023 when Curry and his Warriors teammate Klay Thompson will face the star Chiefs duo of Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce in a game of golf.
Warriors point guard Steph Curry on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” on May 23, 2023. TwitterTuesday’s “Inside the NBA” was filmed on-site at the Heat’s home arena, which was formerly named FTX Arena and was renamed Kaseya Center on a 17-year deal in April after the FTX scandal.
In November 2022, Shaq was named a defendant in a class-action lawsuit against now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX for promoting the company in a June commercial.
Curry, along with a number of athletes and celebrities, including Tom Brady and his ex-wife Gisele Bündchen and comedian Larry David, were also named in the lawsuit.
Curry also starred in an FTX commercial with O’Neal as the narrator.
Shaquille O’Neal at Kaseya Center in Miami with TNT for the Eastern Conference Finals between the Heat and Celtics on May 23, 2023. TwitterIn a December 2022 interview with CNBC, Shaq said his friendship with Curry was the reason he agreed to appear in the FTX commercial.
“A lot of people think I’m involved, but I was just a paid spokesperson for a commercial,” he said.
Shaq did not explain the matter further, and a spokesperson for Curry declined to comment at the time.
“I’m excited to be partnering with FTX to help make crypto accessible to everyone,” Shaq said in the commercial. “I’m all in. Are you?”
The lawsuit alleges that FTX’s spokespeople “either controlled, promoted, assisted in [or] actively participated” in a plot to “aggressively market” the company, per CNBC.
Warriors point guard Steph Curry shoots the ball during Game 6 of the Western Conference Semifinals against the Lakers on May 12, 2023 at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California. NBAE via Getty Images
Shaquille O’Neal attends the 44th Annual Sports Emmy Awards at Frederick P. Rose Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center on May 22, 2023 in New York City. Getty ImagesTexas was separately investigating some celebrity FTX endorsers for potentially violating state securities laws, Bloomberg reported in November 2022.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused FTX founder and former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried of orchestrating “brazen” years-long fraud, misusing customer funds to benefit himself and his crypto hedge fund, Alameda Research.
The class-action lawsuit naming Shaq, Curry and other athletes and celebrities reportedly is a legal proceeding separate from the federal government’s charges.
It’s unclear how much money Shaq made from his FTX endorsement deal.
On Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported that Shaq avoided service in the lawsuit.
