Shaquille O’Neal Distances Himself From Netflix ‘Tiger King’

It's the show that just might be the everlasting and enduring memory of the coronavirus Stay-at-Home adventure. It's called Tiger King and it's a new docu-series streaming on Netflix.

The quirky adventures of some off the charts Oklahoma zookeepers have now caught the attention of animal rights groups and law enforcement. And that's the reason former LSU basketball and NBA star Shaquille O'Neal is now distancing himself from the show.

O'Neal actually appears on camera during the docu-series. In the opening episode, O'Neal is seen touring the facility, taking pictures with the animals, and then referencing the visit to the Oklahoma facility the next night during a nationwide basketball broadcast.

In a recent episode of his "The Big Podcast With Shaq" the athlete now turned tv commentator explained his reason for being at the Tiger King complex.

We're there, and I dropped some donations for the tigers' foods and all that. We take pictures with [the] tigers. We went back a couple times. Then we go back another time, and we found out that he's involved with all the stuff, and then, actually, I stopped going.

That quote was reported by ESPN.com.

The "stuff" that O'Neal refers to just happens to be the legal troubles of Joe Exotic. The Tiger King owner. He was recently sentenced to 22 years in prison. This after being found guilty of multiple charges including a murder-for-hire plot. He was also implicated in a scheme to illegally sell tiger cubs.

Shaquille went on to explain his love for Tigers. He also mentioned that he donates to animal charities that help tigers too. However, he was quick to clarify that he has never purchased a tiger or any animal from Joe Exotic. He also explained that he was "not friends" with Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage.