Stop what you’re doing and marvel at the wondrous sight of 7’1” Shaquille O’Neal donning what we can only assume is a 9XL Seattle Kraken jersey and whipping through the city streets on an electric scooter.
Majestic, magical, a sight to behold. Once he got a handle on the steering, he appears to become one with the scooter, a man defined by a life on the road. Despite Doug Pigsley’s assertion that Shaq made it back up the hill, part of me wants to believe he simply coasted down and off into the sunset. Off to have his own adventures, getting into to some wacky sitcom-esque trouble all while wearing the deep sea and ice blue sweater of our hometown.
O’Neal was in town to promote his restaurant, Big Chicken, which will feature not one but TWO locations inside Climate Pledge Arena this year. Here he is with executive chef Molly De Mers explaining what his chicken joint will bring to the city.
In addition to roaming the city on what we can only assume is one of the most powerful scooters known to man, he also made time to tour the new arena. Are there photos of said tour? I’m glad you asked.
Perhaps the most important part of this whole story, aside from just being generally rad as a whole, was O’Neal’s assessment of the arena itself. He joined Dave Mahler on 950 KJR Sports later in the day and gave his enthusiastic approval of the Greenhouse.
High praise from a man who has played in every NBA arena over the course of a 19-year basketball career. Hopefully this is a sign that he will be pivoting to hockey because at this point there’s very little I want more in the world than Shaq giving commentary from between the benches. Make it happen, TNT.
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