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Shaquille O’Neal is renowned for being one of basketball’s biggest comedians, and in a recent anecdote shared by Matt Barnes, his pranking antics reached a new height. Barnes, who was Shaq's teammate during the 2008-09 season, recounted a prank war involving forward Lou Amundson.
Barnes shared on Podcast P with Paul George that Shaquille O’Neal played a nasty prank on Amundson by putting his mouthguard in his groin during shootaround and returning it to Amundson's locker without his knowledge.
Unfortunately, for Amundson, he wore the mouthguard to the amusement of his teammates.
“Shaq goes through a whole shootaround with Lou's mouthpiece under his nutsack, then put it back in his locker,” Barnes said.
“Before the game, coaches be talking, and Lou would always get up, put his mouthpiece in, jump around, and stretch because he's an energy dude. He put that s**t in his mouth, and everyone died.”
(Watch Barnes' narration of the story starting at the 56:10 mark of the video below)
Amundson was only in his third season when the prank occurred. He would go on to have a successful 10-year career, playing the most games with the Suns franchise.
Throughout his career, he earned $12,819,802. He was a role player who averaged 3.7 points and 3.6 rebounds. Meanwhile, Shaquille O’Neal averaged 16.5 points, 9.0 rebounds and 1.7 assists in two seasons with the Suns.
Before the mouthguard prank, Shaquille O’Neal peed in Lou Amundson’s shoes
Another one of Shaq's pranks on Lou Amundson was quite disgusting. ESPN's Amin Elhassan shared a story that the legendary big man urinated on Amundson's shoes before the mouthguard incident.
“Shaq is the big prankster, the big joker,” Elhassan said. “But if you do something against him, there’s no tit for tat. There’s tit for nuclear war.”
“He goes to Lou’s locker, grabs his sneakers, pees in them.”
Elhassan mentioned that urinating on his teammate's shoes was just the beginning. He said that Shaq then tampered with Amundson's haircare devices in ways he did not disclose but said that they were more unpleasant than urinating.
However, the pranking was not a one-way affair. Shaquille O’Neal, known as one of the biggest pranksters in league history, experienced his own dose of pranking when he fell victim to Amundson's antics.
While not as disgusting, Amundson filled Shaq's car with styrofoam. You can watch Amundson's prank below.
The 2007-08 season was in the tailend of Shaq's career. He played three more years before retiring from the NBA as a member of the Boston Celtics in the 2010-11 season.
