- Shaquille O'Neal was one of the NBA's biggest stars during his playing career.
- O'Neal was also a relentless hazer of new players, according to his former teammate Gary Payton.
- Payton said O'Neal would pour a bucket of his poop on rookies, which can lead to fatal infections.
Shaquille O'Neal allegedly hazed NBA rookies by pooping and peeing in a bucket for a week and then dumping it on them, according to his former Los Angeles Lakers and Miami Heat teammate Gary Payton.
"Shaq is a jokester," Payton told Vlad TV. "If one of the rookies would be in the stall, then he would take a bucket and use the bathroom in it for about a week. And then all of a sudden he would pour it on them, so we started being jokesters."
Rookies that played with O'Neal on the Lakers and Heat include Kobe Bryant, Tyronn Lue, Luke Walton, Kareem Rush, and Joel Anthony
Payton said he tried to prank O'Neal back but didn't go to the same extremes. Payton said he often stole O'Neal's underwear and then messed up his pants, which forced the 7-foot-1, then 340-lb O'Neal to walk around in a towel. But Payton said it didn't really faze the NBA Hall-of-Famer.
"Shaq don't care," Payton said. "He'll go outside with a towel on or anything. He'd get in his truck, ride around, and then throw the towel out and be free-balling!"
Still, O'Neal's alleged hazing tactic may have exposed the rookies to potentially harmful bacteria.
Poop and pee can cause dangerous infections
Human feces and urine contains over 100 different variations of bacteria and viruses.
Ingesting another person's poop or urine can carry a high risk of dysentery, an infection of the intestines that causes diarrhea containing blood or mucus, according to WebMD.
Other potential infections that can stem from being exposed to too much human waste include typhoid fever, cholera, hepatitis A, E. Coli, and worms (helminths), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
O'Neal's agent Perry Rogers has not responded to Insider's request for a comment.