Shaquille O’Neal Opts Out Of Weighing In On Ime Udoka’s Cheating Scandal, ‘I Lost My Family Doing It’

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal is sitting out on conversations involving the cheating scandal with Boston Celtics head coach Ime Udoka, a team employee and his estranged partner, Nia Long.

On September 25, O’Neal, Nischelle Turner and Spice Adams chopped it about a plethora of topics, including Udoka’s infidelity. When Turner brought the jaw-dropping news during The Big Shaq Podcast, the 50-year-old former baller declined to comment out of not wanting to be a hypocrite.

“I am going to step down from this conversation. I was a serial cheater. It would be crazy and blasphemous for me to get up here and say, ‘Boom, boom, bam.’ I can’t do that. I know these guys personally. I know they’re going through a lot because I went through a lot.”

He also expressed that he had a history with Long and wasn’t going to “fake it” about his philandering past and weighing in on Udoka’s transgressions.

“I just wish that certain parties weren’t involved. I’ve known Nia Long for a long time, and I like her. They’re going through a lot of family stuff. I’m never the guy that’s gonna get up here because of my platform and fake it,” O’Neal expressed. “I did it. I was the best at it and not proud of it at all. I lost my family doing it. I lost valuable, important years of my children from doing it. I’m not that guy. I’m real with the situation.”

In April, the former L.A. Laker basketball player appeared on The Pivot  Podcast and took accountability for his role in the failure of his nine-year marriage to Shaunie Henderson.

In a vulnerable moment, O’Neal explained that he had  “the perfect situation with his ex-wife.”

“Sometimes, when you make a lot of mistakes like that, you can’t really come back from that. Sometimes you live that double life and get caught up. I’m not going to say it was her. It was all me.”

He expressed his regret over losing Shaunie to his ego and misdeeds.

“I had the perfect situation,” he continued. “Wife was fine. Kept giving me babies. Still fine. I had it all. I don’t make excuses. I know I messed up. When that d-word happened, I don’t like to use that word. I was lost. Seventy-six thousand square foot house by yourself. Lost. No kids. Go to the gym. Nobody’s playing. You go to their room. Nobody’s there.”

Shaunie married Pastor Keion Henderson in May, according to BET.com.