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Sports InsiderShaq to Help Overweight Kids in New TV Show.
June 24th 2007 12:26
Let’s face it the majority of Americans are statistically fat. From the land that bought the world fast food and some Frankenstein, culinary creation called a ‘turducken’, people from the land of the free and home of the big need a little help in embracing better eating habits. This is where Shaquille O’Neal enters the scene, helping out obese kids in his new show Shaq’s Big Challenge.
Now, a lot of you dear readers out there are probably sniggering at the fact that Shaq helping out obese kids is like a big pot, calling a big kettle, fat. You’d be right, yet wrong. In publicity for his show Shaq differentiates himself in one fundamental way when comparing himself to his young charges – he is an athlete that stays active.
Shaq Daddy will take six plump young ’uns from various Florida middle schools and will be
whipping them into shape. ESPN writer Sam Alipour makes the rather wry observation that The Diesel could conceivably eat one of those kids if felt the pangs of hunger pain, and Shaq’s response? “No way," O'Neal counters. "That's the old Shaq.” (ESPN.com, Alipour, 2007)
Many basketball fans out there would be chuckling at the irony still that Shaq will be helping out obese youngsters to get fit, because throughout his career he has often been maligned as a not-so-svelte individual himself. In fact just ask Kobe Bryant what he used to think of the Big Aristotle health regime, and in response you’d probably get a verbal diatribe filled with obscenities that would make the late Richard Pryor blush.
Luckily for the kids they aren’t exclusively dependent on the Daddy for their dieting tips with a host of specialists, trainers and celebrity chef Tyler Florence all on board for Shaq’s Big Challenge.
Dwayne Wade, Shaq’s Miami teammate also makes a cameo appearance on the show, and when Alipour asks Flash if the Big Aristotle could help the superfit Heat guard in dishing off some dieting tips here was Wade’s response: “Hell naw! I should give Shaq some advice, know what I'm saying? Let's just say he still walks around with his little blue bag full of club sandwiches,” Wade says. "He loves those things.” (ESPN.com, Alipour, 2007)
Now, Shaq would prove to be the ultimate hypocrite if he was telling these kids to stop eating greasy foods and guzzling down fizzy drinks if weren’t to do the same. So the Daddy being the team player that he is has also vastly improved his diet – bar the club sandwiches which he apparently is addicted to.
So, let us not hate on Shaq but applaud his latest endeavour, and hopefully they’ll be six less overweight kids in the U.S. by the end of the series.
Today’s video is of old school Shaq when he tore down the whole basket and backboard after a dunk. Yes, you read correctly he tore down the whole damn thing during a game. Watch the clip in awe.
Now, a lot of you dear readers out there are probably sniggering at the fact that Shaq helping out obese kids is like a big pot, calling a big kettle, fat. You’d be right, yet wrong. In publicity for his show Shaq differentiates himself in one fundamental way when comparing himself to his young charges – he is an athlete that stays active.
Shaq Daddy will take six plump young ’uns from various Florida middle schools and will be
Shaq eats 3 NBA players before breakfast. (Image from nba.com)
Many basketball fans out there would be chuckling at the irony still that Shaq will be helping out obese youngsters to get fit, because throughout his career he has often been maligned as a not-so-svelte individual himself. In fact just ask Kobe Bryant what he used to think of the Big Aristotle health regime, and in response you’d probably get a verbal diatribe filled with obscenities that would make the late Richard Pryor blush.
Luckily for the kids they aren’t exclusively dependent on the Daddy for their dieting tips with a host of specialists, trainers and celebrity chef Tyler Florence all on board for Shaq’s Big Challenge.
Dwayne Wade, Shaq’s Miami teammate also makes a cameo appearance on the show, and when Alipour asks Flash if the Big Aristotle could help the superfit Heat guard in dishing off some dieting tips here was Wade’s response: “Hell naw! I should give Shaq some advice, know what I'm saying? Let's just say he still walks around with his little blue bag full of club sandwiches,” Wade says. "He loves those things.” (ESPN.com, Alipour, 2007)
Now, Shaq would prove to be the ultimate hypocrite if he was telling these kids to stop eating greasy foods and guzzling down fizzy drinks if weren’t to do the same. So the Daddy being the team player that he is has also vastly improved his diet – bar the club sandwiches which he apparently is addicted to.
So, let us not hate on Shaq but applaud his latest endeavour, and hopefully they’ll be six less overweight kids in the U.S. by the end of the series.
Today’s video is of old school Shaq when he tore down the whole basket and backboard after a dunk. Yes, you read correctly he tore down the whole damn thing during a game. Watch the clip in awe.
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Comment by Cibbuano
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what's wrong with turducken?
Comment by Joy Grunenwald
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Comment by Stanley
joy - we should be stoked that these kids are wanting to change their lives. thanks for the comment.
deorre - yes i forgot about that dunk too which is amazing because when i was little and it happened i was obsessed with the clip. he is a force of nature.
i actually never thought he was fat, even at his heaviest- unfit, yes, but not fat. i mean i wouldn't say it to his face either because he'd kick my scrawny ass.