Shaquille O'Neal Dismisses Dating Rumors After Viral Photo Surfaces, Playfully Posts Similar Pics with Other Women

The NBA Hall of Famer poked enjoyable at a viral photograph on social media by which followers misidentified him

<p>Paras Griffin/Getty Images</p> Shaquille O — Paras Griffin/Getty Images
Shaquille O'Neal attends Shaq Attack Day at Nana's Chicken & Waffles

Shaquille O'Neal is shutting down rumors after social media customers accused him of being in a PDA-packed viral photograph.

O'Neal, 52, was regarded as in a photograph shared by a girl named Maria Ozuna Teachey on Instagram and obtained by TMZ. The picture confirmed Teachey and the thriller man — who shares an analogous construct to the previous basketball star — embracing in a NSFW place whereas standing in entrance of a mirror.

Teachey's social media followers believed it was O'Neal within the picture, and hypothesis concerning the retired participant's relationship standing started circulating on-line.

Once O'Neal caught wind of the rumor, he went to Instagram to set the report straight and denied being the person depicted. “Nope not the kid,” he commented on the publish shared by Worldstar.

<p>SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP via Getty</p> Shaquille O'Neal, aka DJ Diesel — SUZANNE CORDEIRO/AFP by way of Getty
Shaquille O'Neal, aka DJ Diesel

Then, the 7-foot-1 basketball commentator shared two posts to his Instagram grid poking enjoyable on the rumor.

O'Neal put together a series of photos of himself and other women in a similar pose to the viral photograph and wrote, “Is this my girlfriend too, trust me I’ll let yall know who my woman is,” within the caption. “And by the way my woman name is Shaqirah,” he joked.

In another video, O'Neal confirmed off his dance strikes in a humorous bit with media persona Alexa Leighton. “My actual girlfriend is aware of I’m an enormous black unique dancer #itwasntme,” O'Neal wrote.

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In latest years, O'Neal has remained pretty personal about his romantic life. In May, the Inside the NBA star's ex-wife, Shaunie Henderson, launched her memoir Undefeated, by which she questioned whether or not she ever actually liked her ex-husband.

After the ebook's launch, O'Neal shared a somber message on Instagram, writing, “I understand… I wouldn’t have been in love with me either. Wishing you all the best. All love, Shaq,” he wrote on Instagram with the caption, “Trust me I get it.”

<p>Getty(2)</p> Shaquille O'Neal; Shaunie Henderson — Getty(2)
Shaquille O'Neal; Shaunie Henderson

Henderson told PEOPLE shortly after that the quote from her ebook was taken out of context concerning O'Neal.

“My book is my truth, and when I was talking to my friend yesterday, I was like, ‘Developing an opinion and a comment from content with no context will show you a lot of people's intelligence and unintelligence, right?' There was no context to just that one quote that I said, and I think that sadly, people are taking my words out of context.”

“I'm not a word girl. I'm a character girl, and since I've left the marriage of Shaquille, my character has spoken for itself,” she added.

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