Shaquille O'Neal's incredible reaction when he knew Diego Maradona admired him

Sports legends in the 1990s, Diego Maradona and Shaquille O’Neal had mutual admiration. The soccer master loved NBA and the LA Lakers’ center, and this one also has enjoyed the Argentinian’s unlimited talent with the ball in his feet. Despite that, it took a long time until both knew from the other’s support and respect.

It all started by the end of the 1990s, when a crew from Argentine TV interviewed Shaquille O’Neal. He was given a soccer ball to improvise some tricks. Then, he pronounced Diego Maradona’s name on the camera.

Later, in another meeting with a TV crew in his country, Maradona was asked on his reactions after he he had seen the footage, and expressed a huge surprise, joking like getting fainted. The interviewer Andrés Kusnetzoff asked him how he could feel like that being a star himself. Maradona’s brilliant answer was: “If you ever lose your capacity of feeling surprise, you’ve lost everything, man”.

The TV crew, which belonged to Fox Sports Argentina, flew back to Los Angeles weeks later and showed O’Neal the footage of Maradona’s reaction. Despite his body language didn’t evidence feeling so comfortable with the moment, he smiled when he saw Maradona on video saying “From now on, go Shaquille”. After that, he was given an Argentinian national soccer team shirt. Of course not even the biggest soccer size fit in an NBA center.