Shaquille O’Neal saw the look on Will Smith’s face before he went up to slap Chris Rock, and that told the NBA legend all he needed to know about the situation.
Smith created an unforgettable, if infamous, Oscars moment over the weekend when he slapped Rock for making a joke about his wife’s alopecia.
But when you watch the full clip, you see initially that Smith was smiling and laughing at the joke, while Jada Pinkett Smith didn’t look nearly as amused. It was at that point when Will Smith walked up on the stage and delivered the blow to Rock.
On “The Big Podcast with Shaq”, O’Neal referred back to an oft-used line when offering his take on the situation.
“Go back to the tape, as you know I like to be my own detective. When he said the joke, Will laughed. He laughed, and then Jada did like this," Shaq said. "Now, that's when the PPL (protect, provide and love) kicks in. All you married guys know unhappy wife, unhappy life. Now that he saw Jada was uncomfortable, he was like 'I probably got to go deal with this at home, I'm going to tell that boy to chill out now that he disrespected her.' He went up and did what he had to do."
Smith has been widely criticized for the move, which he since has apologized for. And while Shaq doesn’t firmly take a side, it sounds like he has at least a little bit of understanding about what Smith was doing.
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