Shaquille O’Neal told a story of burning his nutsack with IcyHot. So with that blunt opener out of the way, heed his cautionary tale and be careful when applying it below your waist.
Shaq told this story on Conan O’Brien’s Conan O’Brien Needs A Friend podcast, saying that he once had to exit an NBA contest early because a trainer put the liniment “too high” when he was rubbing it on his thigh.
“I always used to see IcyHot in the locker room, and one day I kind of had like a thigh bruise, and the guy rubbed it, but he rubbed it too high,” O’Neal said. “So, during the game, my little guys started getting hot… like, really hot. Like, I thought something was wrong.”
The pain got so bad he says he had to leave, adding, “It got to the point where I was like, ‘Hey man, I think I need a doctor. My little guys are on fire.’”
He says he took a shower in the locker room but that doing so exacerbated the issue. He says that a janitor advised using milk as a remedy, and that it ended up working.
“So now I’m in the shower pouring milk on my boys and the guys coming in, they’re looking at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’” he said.
Shaq also said that he’s “never felt a pain like that in my life”
Makes you wonder how many of those “he may return” injury updates have backstories like this, but anyway IcyHot ended up being one of about 1000 products endorsed by Shaq over the years. This is to say that, at least in this case, he wasn’t trying to hock something he was unfamiliar with.
Listen below and, if pressed for time, skip to 45:10:
