The number one thing on pretty much every London tourist’s checklist is to try and wind up one of the royal guards, and it turns out Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal is no different.
So much so, it turns out that Shaq was actually once detained in the capital for bumping into a guard, and had to drop David Beckham’s name in order to be released from custody… or so the superstar baller claims.
Shaq shared the anecdote during an appearance on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and the hero athlete happened to be sitting next to none other than David’s wife, Victoria Beckham. Watch Shaq on the show below:
The duo appeared on Cordon’s chat show together back in 2018, and Shaq explained: “My friend bet me fifty thousand I couldn’t make the guards move. So because they stand very still outside guarding the palace. I will go up to him and I’ll go [pulls funny face].”
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He went on: “So then last time I bumped them and they came out of nowhere right. So they took me in some back room and I actually used your husband’s name to get out.”
Shaq added: “I said, ‘listen, David Beckham is your guy over here, I’m the black David Beckham of the States. So tell Prince Charles that the black David Beckham, Shaquille O’Neal is sorry, he apologised, and it never happened again’.
“So I don’t know if it worked but the guy came in like 10 minutes later and they let me go.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Shaq claimed he once spent $70,000 in Walmart, insisting it was the ‘biggest purchase in the supermarket chain’s history’.
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His blow-out haul was so large, in fact, that Shaq - who was shopping for a new apartment - said his card was declined.
The athlete explained: “I have the biggest purchase in Walmart history. $70,000. I get traded from Miami to Phoenix, and I'm the type of guy [that] I have no patience.
"So when I get to Phoenix, they have an apartment for me. Nothing's in it."
He continued: “Two or three in the morning, I gotta go get four or five TVs, I gotta go get printers, I gotta go get laptops. I gotta go get sheets, towels, underwear, t-shirts.
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"So at the end it was $70,000 so I put my credit card in and it got declined. So I pulled it out. I put it back in and it said declined again.”
He then quipped: “So now I'm saying 'well, I know I'm not broke.' So I just said 'alright, I'll be back' and then the American Express security called me [and he said] 'hey man, somebody stole your credit card and they spent $70,000 at Walmart'.
"I said 'no that was me', [the security guard replied] 'what the hell are you buying for $70,000?'"
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Topics: Celebrity, James Corden, Royal Family, Sport