President Erdoğan meets with NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has become a trending topic with the photos he shared on his social media account.

Meeting with famous NBA basketball player Shaquille O'Neal, Erdoğan shared photos taken with the world-renowned basketball star with his followers.

THEY SIGNED A BASKETBALL

While the duo's friendly moments drew attention, the shared photos included moments where they signed a basketball.

Here is President Erdoğan's post:

🏀🇹🇷 pic.twitter.com/pFlW4f8XTT

— Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (@RTErdogan) January 20, 2026

WHO IS SHAQUILLE O'NEAL?

Born on March 6, 1972, Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal is an American professional NBA player. He is 2.16 m tall. With a weight of 147 kg, he is among the heaviest players in NBA history.

He has a 19-year NBA career. After his college career at Louisiana State University, he was selected 1st overall by the Orlando Magic in the 1992 NBA Draft. From the moment he arrived in the league, he was among the best centers. He won the Rookie of the Year award in his first season. He played with an average of 13.9 rebounds in his first year. This is the best average of his career.

Continuing his development in his second year, O'Neal succeeded in reaching the NBA Finals with his team in the 1994-95 season. However, they could not win the championship, being swept 4-0 by the previous year's champion, Hakeem Olajuwon's Houston Rockets.

After playing for the Orlando Magic for 4 years, he signed with the Los Angeles Lakers as a free agent in the summer of 1996. Wearing the Lakers jersey for 8 years, Shaq left his mark on the NBA between 2000, 2001, and 2002, winning 3 consecutive championships. Throughout his Lakers career, he occasionally had issues with the team's other superstar, Kobe Bryant. He was traded to the Miami Heat in the summer of 2004.

In his first year, he was eliminated in the Eastern Conference Finals by the Detroit Pistons, who would go on to become NBA champions that year, but he won his fourth championship the following year as the 2006 NBA champion. In the 2007-08 season, he was traded to the Phoenix Suns before the trade deadline. After wearing the Suns jersey for 1.5 years, he was traded to LeBron James's Cleveland Cavaliers for the 2009-10 season.

The Cavaliers were the fifth team he played for. He was selected as MVP in the 1999-00 season, was an All-Star 15 times, All-Star MVP 3 times, Finals MVP 3 times, scoring champion 2 times, and was selected to the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams 14 times and 3 times respectively.

By winning the regular season MVP award, the All-Star Game MVP, and the Finals MVP in the 1999-00 season, he became the third player to achieve this feat. This had previously been accomplished by Willis Reed in 1970 and Michael Jordan twice between 1996 and 1998. He is in fifth place on the all-time leading scorers list. He ranks 6th in field goal percentage, 14th in rebounds, and seventh in blocks.

Beyond his athleticism, O'Neal is a musician and also has a film career. O'Neal, who has 4 rap albums, has appeared in various films and television shows.