Shaquille O'Neal Explains That Controversial 'Tiger King' Cameo
Shaquille O’Neal’s cameo in “Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness” isn’t even close to the craziest thing that happens on the Netflix docuseries ― but it did still raise some eyebrows.
The NBA legend brought it up on the most recent episode of his “The Big Podcast With Shaq,” explaining his association with the bizarre story and Joseph “Joe Exotic” Schreibvogel Maldonado-Passage, aka the Tiger King.
O’Neal has always been outspoken about his love of big cats and has posted multiple images of his tigers on social media. In one clip included on “Tiger King,” he said he’d recently visited Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma and gained two new tigers.
In case you’ve somehow missed the absolute madness that is “Tiger King,” the story follows the life of the gay polygamous zookeeper who draws outrage from wildlife advocacy groups for his breeding and treatment of big cats ― and then gets wrapped up in a murder-for-hire plot against his nemesis, animal rights activist Carole Baskin. He is currently serving a 22-year sentence for that plot, and several wildlife violations.
Along with criticisms directed at O’Neal for keeping big cats as pets, social media users pointed out that Maldonado-Passage is not exactly the best person to be associated with.
Shaq when he saw himself featured on the #TigerKing documentary hanging out with Joe exotic pic.twitter.com/j4lhvBBA5f
— Ruben (@twentyonepucks) March 29, 2020
Following these criticisms, O’Neal opened up about his relationship with the park and its owner, claiming he and his entourage were simply visitors.
“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,” O’Neal said.
He and his companions took some pictures with the tigers, O’Neal said, and went back on a handful of occasions, but stopped visiting once they were made aware...
