We have another story to add to the file: “Why do the mid-2000s already seem like the dang Stone Age?” From the simpler time before smartphones comes a tale of Shaquille O’Neal’s unique blend of ingenuity, creativity and lack of practicality — that time he put a cellphone into one of his sneakers a la Maxwell Smart. He did this at the 2005 All-Star Game back when he was on the Heat, and he did it in spectacular fashion.
The video, dredged up by House of Highlights, starts with Allen Iverson, whose reaction to hearing a voice come out of a shoe is how most of us would react: “Oh yo, it works for real, man!” Combined with the physical comedy of Shaq’s shoe dwarfing AI’s head, that’s just a beautiful moment. But it doesn’t stop there, oh no.
Craig Sager once again does the yeoman’s work in trying to understand just why Shaq would put a phone in a shoe, but he’s immediately thrown off course by the shoe phone actually ringing — AND IT’S P. DIDDY. Imagine something like that happening in your life.
You’re walking in the park (or I guess to update this analogy, you’re playing Pokemon Go in the park), and all of a sudden you hear a phone ringing. No other human’s around, so you assume it’s a dropped phone, right? Sounds like it’s coming from a rock by the nearest bench, so you pick it up and look under it, only for the ringing to continue in your hand. You’re amazed to see an “accept call” button, and you press it.
“Yo, this is Puff Daddy, who am I speaking to?”
I might just drop the phone and run away.
