Shaquille O’Neal jokingly gushed over Tom Brady’s looks and physique while recalling his personal struggles with weight loss during a recent panel.
The former Los Angeles Lakers player was a guest speaker along with Brady during the Milken Institute’s Global Conference 2026 earlier this month. Around the 13-minute mark of the video below, the athletes were asked how they continue to work out as they’ve gotten older.
“I’m trying to be sexy as Tom,” Shaq joked. “I mean, we've been friends for years, but I can't stop looking at him.”
The retired NBA player continued by explaining that he works out 3-4 times weekly, but admitted that he no longer has a “championship discipline.”
“I'm not supposed to be eating burgers and club sandwiches and all that. So, but every now and then. I just miss it so much. I just do it.” Shaq added.
Moderator and sportscaster Jim Gray interjected and recalled when Shaq revealed that he was 400 pounds during the early 2000s. In a 2023 interview on SiriusXM Sports with Brady, per Sports Illustrated, Shaq recalled being over 400 pounds during the Lakers’ 2002 championship run.
“I was fatter than Charles Barkley and that's when I decided I need to make a change,” Shaq told Gray. “I looked at his belly and I looked at my belly and I didn't like what I saw and I was [thinking] I have to make a change.”
In his 2023 conversation with Brady, Shaq said that during his last championship with the Lakers in 2002, he was a whopping 415 pounds, which would make him the first player in NBA history to cross the 400-pound threshold.
