Shaquille O'Neal Once Blamed A Truck Full Of Chickens For Being Late To Practice

Los Angeles Lakers great Shaquille O'Neal had a knack for concocting weird stories for his tardiness

As expected, it was tough keeping a straight face while being a teammate of NBA great Shaquille O'Neal. 

Even when mad, O'Neal brought laughter on the court. Former Lakers guard Derek Fisher detailed what it was like playing alongside O'Neal. 

"Shaq was like the ultimate big brother," Fisher said. "He kind of put all of us under his wing at different times and tried to show us the ropes just in terms of life and being in the league. Shaq's sense of humor, as we know now, is insane and it always has been. As dominant as he was on the court ... you enjoyed coming to practice and being in the facility or being around him on the bus or on the plane. There was always something funny that he was saying or doing. Even when he got really pissed off, you knew he was mad and you obviously didn't want to get in his way, but then you're almost on the verge of laughing out loud." 

Fisher said O'Neal had a knack of concocting unbelievable stories to explain why he was late for practice on occasion. His best was blaming tardiness on a truck full of chickens. 

"You're living in LA," Fisher said. "You're going to be late somewhere due to traffic. It's just a part of life out here. Every now and then, Shaq would just come up with some crazy stories as to why he was a couple minutes late getting to the building. One of his go-to [stories] was there was an accident on the 405 and he would have different examples, `It was a tractor trailer full of chickens and all the chickens were out flying over the freeway. I couldn't get around it.' How does somebody even think of that? 

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