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Shaquille O'Neal Served Papers in FTX Lawsuit During NBA Playoff Game

O'Neal had been dodging process servers for months before he was reached while on site as an analyst for the Miami Heat-Boston Celtics game

Shaquille O'Neal
Megan Briggs/Getty Images

Shaq has been served.

For months, Shaquille O'Neal managed to successfully dodge process servers hired to present him with papers saying he was being named as a defendant in the lawsuit against FTX, a now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange that he previously endorsed.  

The chase ended Tuesday when the 7-foot-1 O'Neal had nowhere to hide while surrounded by 20,000 people at Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.

O'Neal was served while on site as an analyst for TNT, broadcasting from a booth situated in the stands at Kaseya Center in Miami, which was formerly named FTX Center.

"He was personally provided the papers, so he cannot raise his absurd delay tactics,” the plaintiff's attorney, Adam Moskowitz, told NBC's Pro Football Talk.

“We watched the prior Heat-Celtics game, so we knew he would be in the outside broadcasting booth where fans were right next door.” 

Prior attempts to serve O'Neal at his homes in Texas, Georgia and Florida and at TNT's studio in Atlanta were unsuccessful, according to The Washington Post. Some process servers, the Post reported, even attempted to throw the papers at O'Neal's moving vehicle.

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O'Neal is one of 11 celebrity defendants - which includes former NFL quarterback Tom Brady and comedian and actor Larry David - in the case against FTX. O'Neal also was served Tuesday for a separate NFT/crypto lawsuit alleging he sold unregistered tokens with the Astrals Project that he helped launch and promote.

“The allegations in the new crypto complaint are very serious and detail how him, his son and his business partner all founded this NFT Metaverse and he made promises every week that he would be extremely involved, so the value of the NFTs would grow greatly,” Moskowitz said. “Once the FTX fraud was revealed, he ran away and has not been heard since.”

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