Shaquille O’Neal Explains His Appearance In ‘Tiger King’

Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal’s presence in the Netflix documentary, Tiger King, raised more than a few eyebrows.

But Shaq wants you all to know that he and Joe Exotic are not friends.

The former basketball player addressed how he met the incarcerated big cat owner on The Big Podcast with Shaq.

“So we go in there, and it’s a beautiful place, and the character that was there was Exotic Joe. We’re there and I dropped some donations for the tigers’ foods and all that. We take pictures with [the] tigers. We went back a couple times,” he explained.

Shaq says he was merely a patron. He said that all stopped when he heard about Joe’s shenanigans.

“Then we go back another time, and we found out that he’s involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going,” adding, “I don’t harm tigers. I love tigers. I love white tigers. Do I put donations to these zoos to help these tigers out? I do it all the time. Do I own tigers personally at my house? No. But I love tigers. Listen, people are going to make their own opinions, but, again, I was just a visitor. I met this guy — not my friend. Don’t know him. Never had any business dealings with him, and I had no idea any of that stuff was going on.”