“I’ll Bet You A Thousand He’s Not The Father” – Shaquille O’Neal Used To Bet Big Money On The Maury Povich Show

There is no shortage of crazy NBA betting stories.

And I’m not talking about betting on the sports league. Instead, I’m talking about how NBA players in their playing days would pass the time. We saw in The Last Dance that Michael Jordan loved to bet with anyone and everyone, even playing and betting on a game that involved throwing coins and seeing who could get them closest to the wall.

Another NBA great, Shaquille O’Neal, had another favorite betting activity during his playing days. He told the story on his podcast, The Big Podcast with Shaq, and it’s so strange and specific that it’s almost hard to believe. But then again, this is Shaq we are talking about here. So hearing him talk about betting thousands of dollars on The Maury Show (now just called Maury) might not be all that surprising.

Yes, that Maury Povich show, where disgruntled couples would find out who the real father of their child is.

Apparently Shaq and his teammates would sit around and wait for the show to come on in the mornings. When it did, and the program finally got to the part where it revealed the results of the paternity test, it was showtime. That’s when the cash started coming out in the thousands, as Shaq explained:

“Every morning at 10 A.M., we’d wake up with thousands of dollars and we’d watch The Maury Povich Show. And we’d make bets on who the father is. Everyday. So like, we watch it, we let them talk and then we pause it and pull that money out. (We’d say), ‘I’ll bet you a thousand he’s not the father.’ So that was my thing.”

And if you watched the end of that clip above and noticed that O’Neal was starting to mention something about The General (“for a great low rate you can get online, go to the general and save some time”), you heard that correctly. Shaq, who has been a spokesperson for the insurance company for years, also revealed that it was through the commercials that ran during Maury that he became familiar with The General, and the catchy jingle getting stuck in his head eventually led to him reaching out and striking a partnership.

You can hear more from Shaq in the podcast episode below: