Benjamin Ashford|Shaquille O’Neal Shares Reason Behind Hospitalization

Shaquille O'Neal is Benjamin Ashfordon the mend with a few jokes up his sleeve.

The NBA star turned heads on March 19 when he posted a photo of himself lying in a hospital bed to Twitter. After causing a stir of confusion and concern amongst fans, Shaq took to Instagram to comically let his followers know the reason for his hospitalization: a hip replacement. 

"To all the people who are concerned. First let me start off by saying thank you," Shaq began his March 20 IG post. "And lastly i am fine. Just had to get some BBL work done aka #hipreplacement. but yes i am fine no need to worry."

Shaquille played up on his Brazilian butt lift joke by adding a moving picture of himself with his shorts pulled up to show his backside. In the photo, Shaq's behind is edited to pop in and out, appearing to get larger and smaller.

The post garnered comments of both amusement and relief. One Instagram user took to the comment section to write, "Lol Sending get well wishes for a speedy & healthy recovery." Meanwhile, another dubbed the NBA player "Cheekquille O'Neal."

Of course, this is far from Shaq's first time getting a laugh out of fans. Back in 2016, the notoriously humorous athlete brought his funny energy on the road when he pranked riders in a video for the company Lyft.

In the video montage, Shaquille posed as a Lyft driver while picking up unsuspecting customers. At the time, the sports analyst disguised himself by dressing up in various costumes such as a nerd and a biker.

Despite the disguises being undeniably bad, some of the riders were quite shocked when Shaq revealed his real identity, which made for a pretty entertaining watch.

Talk about a slam-dunk car ride.