Shaquille O’Neal’s reputation as a prankster followed him everywhere in the Lakers locker room, and Rudy Garciduenas has now added another unforgettable chapter to the pile.
The former Los Angeles Lakers equipment manager, who worked for the team from 1983 to 2011, told the story on Byron Scott’s Fast Break podcast. It started with a bowl of cut-up oranges Garciduenas had set out for players to snack on and stay hydrated. O’Neal apparently helped himself to the whole thing.
“Next thing you know, he’s in the toilet,” Garciduenas said.
From there, the story drifted straight into classic Shaq territory. Garciduenas said O’Neal came out of the bathroom with used toilet paper in his hand, then walked over to Sean Rooks’ locker and stuffed it into Rooks’ shoe.
“He loves the toilet,” Garciduenas said. “And so he comes out of the toilet, and I think it was right before the game.
Nobody’s in the locker room. Guys are out shooting around.
I don’t think there’s even media in the locker room, and he’s got used toilet paper in his hand, and he walks over to Sean Rooks’ locker and puts it in his shoe. And I’m like going, I want no part of this.”
Scott wanted to know whether there was feces on it, and Garciduenas confirmed there was. Rooks had socks on, but that didn’t make the situation any less disgusting.
What happened next was a tense scene between two huge teammates, with Garciduenas stuck in the middle.
“Here I am in the middle of this, and this is two seven-footers wanting to fight each other,” Garciduenas said. “And Sean is the nicest guy ever.
He has no temper. He literally has no temper, and he did not know what to do, but he wanted to kick Shaquille’s a**.
And this is before a game, so you know you can’t kick nobody’s a**. Not even your teammates… He’s trying not to be mad, and he wants to be mad.
“He’s giving Shaq a mouthful,” Garciduenas added. “And Shaq’s just laughing his a** off. But there was karma.”
That karma showed up fast. After the game got going, O’Neal had to head back to the locker room in a hurry.
“So, we get through this episode,” Garciduenas said. “Team goes out for the game.
Shaquille immediately has to poop again. And he literally s*** his shorts on the floor… In The Forum, and he’s mouthing and yelling at me at the same time as he’s running into the locker room.
So, I literally have to chase him into the locker room, and we’re going into the room, and he’s like, I s*** myself.”
Garciduenas said he had already been ready to replace Rooks’ shoes, but he couldn’t have planned for O’Neal’s emergency. Even so, he got Shaq what he needed and helped keep the whole mess from becoming public knowledge at the time.
The story also lands with a sad footnote. Rooks, who was a Laker from 1996 to 1999, died on June 7, 2016, at age 46. Heart disease was likely the cause.
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