Shaquille O'Neal Is Trying His Hand At Tinder, And It's Not Going Exactly As Planned

To borrow a phrase from Mean Girls, how do I even begin to explain Shaquille O'Neal? The legendary basketball player who has four NBA Championship rings, and in Jimmy Kimmel's words, "the only human visible from space," has dabbled in a lot of things (successfully) after getting off the court.

shaq holding a mic in one hand while also talking on a telephone
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Off the court, O'Neal has a BA and an MBA degree, got sworn in as a sheriff's deputy, starred in movies, released music albums, and also took on DJing. Yes, everybody raise your hands. DJ O'Neal is in the house.

Shaq acting as a dj at an event

Though the guy has left the court, he hasn't stopped courting. And he is doing it 21st-century style. Or at least he tried.

Shaq wearing a suit smiling while looking up and away from a book in his hand
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In his recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, O'Neal revealed that he created a profile on Tinder under his own name. And got a match!

Shaq wearing a suit with sunglasses on smiling
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O'Neal said, "I signed up for Tinder, put in my name, and I tried to make a person meet me. And they didn’t believe it was me. I was like, ‘It’s me; it’s Shaq.'"

Shaq getting ready to throw his basketball shot
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Things didn't go as expected, as his match didn't believe that she had indeed matched with Shaq. He further revealed, "And she said, ‘Shaq would never be on this.’ So I had to hit delete. I had to delete my account.”

a portrait of Shaq

Well, can't blame the girl though. It's too good to be true.

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Shaq tried to convince her though. He told Kimmel, "She was hot too. I was like, ‘I’m five minutes [away]. Please just meet me at Starbucks.’ No! Stranger danger, stranger danger. No!”

Shaq next to a host on a football field

Well, it's not every day that you run into NBA giants on a dating app notorious for ghosting, fake accounts, and scams.

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Well Shaq, if it's any consolation, you had better luck than most of us and matched with a human instead of a bot.