"I would have gone Gilbert Arenas on him" - NBA Reddit reacts to Shaquille O'Neal's alleged hazing ritual towards rookies

Shaquille O'Neal went down as one of the greatest forces in NBA history. He was a one-man highlight show that wasn't going to be denied once he attacked the rim. However, besides his evident physical prowess and tools, his larger-than-life persona also made him one of the most popular athletes.

O'Neal has always been playful and unapologetic. Even so, some fans recently thought he crossed the line with some of his teammates. An old story told by Gary Payton re-surfaced again online.

“We used to always play jokes,” Payton said on Vlad TV. “Shaq is a jokester. So if one of the rookies would be in the stall, he would take a bucket and use the bathroom in it for about a week. And then all of a sudden, he would pour it on them."

Gary Payton describes how Shaq would dump weeks worth of his own human waste on rookies heads to haze them byu/itwas20yearsago2day innba

"I would've gone Gilbert Arenas on him," one Redditor wrote.

“It’s just a prank bro. Also if you say anything I’ll get you kicked off the team," another fan added.

"All the stories about Shaq... I think he has an incredible PR team because he's still popular, relevant, and generally seen in a positive light DESPITE all the sh*t he's done," another one added.

"Shaq sounds like a terrible, horrible person. Who even thinks to do something like that?" a Reddit user asked.

"Naw. If this is true, this isn't even hazing. This is abuse or what's worse than abuse?" another one chimed in.

"“Surviving Shaq” documentary finna be a movie," another one said.

Shaquille O'Neal denies the latest prank story

Shaquille O'Neal's shenanigans have gone viral again in recent days. In the latest edition of "The Draymond Green Show," former teammate Tyronn Lue claimed that Shaq once used Devean George's shoe as a toilet.

The four-time NBA champion was quick to share the post on his own Instagram account and deny the story.

"I most certainly did not," he wrote in caption.

It's not the first time that this story has surfaced, with George himself going on the record to say that it never happened.

Even so, if what Payton said is true, Shaq's reputation will most likely take a hit every single time the clip finds its way to social media again.