It’s long been NBA legend that Shaquille O’Neal once put Phoenix Suns teammate Gordon Giricek into a sleeper hold that led to the swingman to pass out.

But why would the Hall of Fame center do that? Shaq, of all people, asked that of Grant Hill, who was a guest on CBS Sports HQ earlier this week. And Hill filled in the gaps that perhaps we’ve been wondering about for a long time:

“Giricek was a good player from Croatia, a good shooter, but he never passed the ball inside. He would always kind of look Shaq off and shoot it. And they would go back and forth and exchange words, and Giricek would kind of talk trash to Shaq. And so one day Shaq was like, ‘You know what, I’ll let this guy know who I am.’ It was right before a big game in Phoenix against Dallas. We have our team meeting. The meeting ends, I go use the restroom, I come out. Giricek’s laid out on the floor. And I’m like, ‘Come on Shaq! We’re trying to win!’ But it was typical Shaq. Thankfully, Giricek, nothing serious happened. Thankfully he’s living to be able to talk about it. But Shaq was always entertaining and always knocking people out, I suppose.”

Probably not a good idea to talk trash to a guy listed at 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds.

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