Social media detectives were quick to speculate that the mystery man in the picture—which shows an unidentified man with big hands wrapped around a woman—might be none other than Shaquille O’Neal.
Shaquille O’Neal, the NBA Hall of Famer, addressed the matter following the global success of the warm photo.
A very tall man was seen hugging Maria Ozuna Teachey from behind in a mirror selfie that she had published; his face was hidden.
She captioned it: “Unapologetically us. Can y’all guess who feet? #loveyou.”
Her 200,000+ Instagram followers quickly flooded her feed with speculative comments, suggesting that the man in the picture was the legendary 7-foot-1-inch, 325-pound basketball player.
Shaq quickly learned about the viral picture and responded in his typical lighthearted manner.
The image was published by the well-known Instagram account WorldStar, who said, “Folks on social media seem to think #Shaq has a new girlfriend.”
Shaq swiftly dispelled the allegations with the remark, “Nope not the kid.”
Shaq carried the joke a step further by sharing a video of himself with five ladies on his personal Instagram account.
He humorously captioned the post, “Is this my girlfriend too, trust me I’ll let y’all know who my woman is, and by the way my woman name is Shaqirah.”
He continued after that. Shaq then posted a video of himself lip-syncing to the well-known Training Day speech by Denzel Washington, stating, “I will let y’all know when I’m in love.”
Though it remains on her Facebook page, Teachey has subsequently removed the post from her Instagram account.
Since his 2011 divorce from Basketball Wives founder Shaunie Henderson, his ex-wife, Shaq has remained quiet on the dating scene.
Shareef, Amirah, Me’arah, Shaqir, and Myles B. O’Neal—Shunie’s son from a prior relationship—are the five children the ex-couple had together.
Additionally, Shaq and his ex-girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh have a daughter named Taahirah O’Neal.
Over the years, there have been many relationship rumors involving Shaq, but he has kept quiet about his personal life.
Shaq will always be a sports icon, that much is obvious.
He has not only dominated the basketball court but also taken on some outrageous challenges, such as competing against Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps.
The 15-time NBA All-Star swam 25 yards in 23.14 seconds during his Shaq Vs. series on ABC, while Phelps finished 50 yards in 24.03 seconds with a five-second head start.
Even though Shaq’s swim was simpler, the scene still made for fantastic television!