Shaq and Shaunie's 'Love & Basketball' Story Hit Our Timelines

With the second round of the NBA Playoffs in full swing, seasoned primetime league commentator and NBA Champion Shaquille O’Neal appears to be living out a scene from the 2000s film Love & Basketball.

On Tuesday (May 7), an excerpt from his ex-wife Shaunie Henderson’s new memoir Undefeated: Changing the Rules and Winning On My Own Terms, began circulating online. In it, she confesses that she wasn’t necessarily in love with Shaq during their nine-year union. Instead, it appears as though Shaunie was drawn to the lifestyle and their family, rather than their commitment to each other as husband and wife.

“Looking back, I don’t know that I was ever really in love with the man, but I was in love with the idea of being married to the man I had a family with,” Shaunie wrote in the memoir. “I was in love with the idea of building a life together. I truly did enjoy spending time with him. [NBA] road trips allowed me to be with my husband and experience the NBA life for a little while.”

Again, even though Shaq is currently tied up in his post hosting for NBA On TNT as the Playoffs continue, he appears to have come across Shaunie’s statements from the memoir and subsequently issued a statement on Instagram.

“I understand…” Shaq wrote in a reel he shared. “I wouldn’t have been in love with me either. Wishing you all the best… All love Shaq [Heart emoji].”

View this post on Instagram
A post shared by DR. SHAQUILLE O'NEAL Ed.D. (@shaq)

A number of prominent Hip-Hop artists, including DJ Paul of Three 6 Mafia and Rick Ross, hopped in the comment section of the post to show Shaq some love. Additionally, Shaunie and Shaq’s son, Shareef O’Neal, also voiced his opinion in the comments of the post, where he wrote, “Literally the most lovable and likable person on the planet!”

In another excerpt from the memoir, Shaunie does appear to sympathize with Shaq, remarking on how difficult it must’ve been for him to navigate life as a husband and father while also being one of the biggest names in professional sports.

“He was trying to be a world-famous, thirty-something multimillionaire with thousands of women throwing themselves at him, and people in general begging just to be in his presence, while being a husband and a father simultaneously,” she added. “How could anyone possibly know how to do that?”