In the immortal words of Parks and Rec’s Tom Haverford, it’s important to treat yoself — and Shaquille O’Neal knows exactly how to do just that.
The NBA star, 52, revealed that he shells out $1,000 on pedicures during a March episode of his podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq.” “I give about $1,000 because I know my feet stink, I know they’re ugly and I like to paint them,” he explained. “I want them to look pretty.”
He added, “True story, one time I had a toenail that was torn off and I wasn’t going to play a game, and my mom was like, ‘Why you not playing the game?’ I was like, ‘I tore my toenail off.’”
O’Neal recalled his mom putting some red nail polish on his toe and he went on to score 40 points. These days, he’s holding onto that special tradition — though the former basketball player has branched out color-wise, dabbling in sparkles and designs.
While O’Neal has shied away from sharing his pricey beauty ritual via social media, he did post a video that featured himself getting a fish pedicure in 2019. The athlete appeared to be enjoying the procedure, which involved dipping his feet into a water basin filled with fish who chewed off his dead skin.
“Fish foot spa day @garralasvegas the experience was great and the fish love my feet in the fashion show mall,” he captioned the video.
The former Lakers player deserves all the feet-themed TLC he can get. Back in 2017, O’Neal underwent surgery for his chronically sore big toe. Bone spurs were removed from a joint on the arthritic toe at UCLA’s Outpatient Surgery Center, which forced the athlete into a surgical shoe.
In a case of life imitating art, more than a decade prior, O’Neal faced a similar — but fictional — injury while guest-starring on Curb Your Enthusiasm. In an episode that aired in 2001, the show’s star Larry David accidentally tripped O’Neal while sitting courtside, prompting an emergency visit to the hospital.
The basketball player admitted that he felt “nervous” to take that on-screen fall. “Because these people are the real deal on TV,” he explained to Showbiz Cheat Sheet. “I don’t wanna be the one that comes in and messes it up.”
O’Neal decided to go method while shooting that episode, allowing the comedian to actually trip him. “I told him, ‘Larry put your foot there and I’ll do the rest,’” he said. “I always wanted to be a stuntman when I was little so I know how to fall.”
