07/09/2026
Shaquille O’Neal has played with some legends, but when he was asked who the biggest superstar was between him, Kobe Bryant and Dennis Rodman, he did not pick himself.
“Dennis Rodman,” Shaq said.
Then came the story.
O’Neal said Rodman would show up to Lakers meetings with “40 minutes on the clock,” eating “chicken and rice” and “not paying attention.” In the middle of it all, Shaq said, Rodman would “take a cold shower,” come back like nothing happened and still give the Lakers work on the glass.
After the game, Shaq said Rodman would put his clothes back on, head straight to the club and have “the baddest women I’ve ever seen in my life” around him.
The part Shaq could not get over was the smell.
“He smelled like garbage truck water,” O’Neal said, and somehow still had “models on him at the club.”
“I was a party guy,” Shaq said. “I was actually mad.”
Rodman’s Lakers run lasted only 23 games in 1999, but the stories from that locker room clearly aged better than the partnership.
