Helaine Cegal recalls apologizing to Shaquille O'Neal after Kobe Bryant misrepresented her words to call Shaq "a fat f**k"
Shaquille O'Neal won three championships in a row with the LA Lakers. As one of the most dominant centers of all time, O'Neal weighed nearly 400 pounds during his championship years, which sounds insane.
Despite their popularity in the early 2000s, the Lakers struggled to find a suitable gym to use for practice in New York City. However, when they found a decent place to practice, Shaq's weight was blamed for an elevator malfunction.
This story includes Shaq, Kobe Bryant and Helaine Cigal, who was an athletic trainer at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where the Lakers practice.
Kobe Bryant told Shaquille O'Neal that he was called fat by athletic trainer
Using the basketball gym of an NCAA Division III school comes with a couple of disadvantages. As the LA Lakers learned the hard way, one of the disadvantages is elevators.
According to Cigal, who worked at the college from 1996 to 2004, she was stuck in the elevator with the Lakers starting five. While taking the elevator with Kobe and Shaq would be a fantastic experience for many NBA fans, that wasn't the case for Cigal.
"We kept getting stuck in between floors," Cigal revealed. "And it happened that Shaquille O’Neal was diagonally across from me. I just looked at him and I said, 'It’s all your fault. You’re just too big.'"
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Kobe Bryant made the situation worse for the big man as he misinterpreted Cigal's words.
"Kobe was like, 'Oh, she just called you fat,'" Cigal added. "I said 'No, I did not call him fat. I think he’s a big guy.'”
Gary Vitti, who was the Lakers trainer at the time, was wondering what happened in the elevator. When the Lakers finally got out, he asked Bryant what happened.
"So Kobe goes, 'She called Shaq a fat f**k,'" Cigal said.
Despite her attempt to explain exactly what happened, Vitti told Cigal that she had to apologize. Apparently, the LA newspaper called O'Neal fat the day before, and the Lakers center wasn't too happy about it.
How much did O'Neal weigh?
Shaquille O'Neal was listed at 325 pounds for the majority of his basketball career. However, this number is not completely accurate as the center weighed much more.
During his first championship run, the Lakers legend weighed 345 pounds. He added 20 pounds more during the second title, while his weight during the three-peat was 395 pounds.
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O'Neal lost a lot of weight when he joined the Miami Heat in 2004. During his final championship in 2006, the 7-foot-1 center weighed only 325 pounds, which isn't bad at all considering he was close to 400 pounds in Los Angeles.