Shaq Asks Facebook to Name His New Boat, Gets Hilariously Trolled

Shaquille O'Neal has made plenty of smart moves in his career, both on and off the court. However, his decision to ask fans to name his new boat definitely does not belong in that category.

A harmless exercise on the face of it, asking fans for their opinion can turn social media into a minefield for sports stars as the four-time NBA champion found out for himself earlier this week.

On Monday, Shaq posted a picture on Facebook of himself alongside anew boat, asking followers for suggestions on how to name what he described as his new toy.

"What should I name her?" he asked.

An easy and straightforward enough question one might say, except it proved to be anything but.

"Call it 'Free Throw' so you won't ever sink," was one of the tongue-in-cheek suggestions, which recorded over 5,000 likes. The reply was, of course, related to Shaq's rather patchy record from the charity stripe in his playing days. One of the most dominant players in the history of the NBA, Shaq's free-throw shooting was so notoriously bad that other teams developed the so-called "Hack-a-Shaq" strategy, opting to deliberately send him to the line to limit his offensive threat.

In his 19 seasons in the NBA, Shaq converted only 52.7 percent of his free-throws, missing 5,300 times from the charity stripe. Had he converted approximately 50 percent of those misses, his scoring average would have risen to 25.9 points from 23.7 points.

Among the thousands of suggestions received, Charles Barkley also stood out. One can only imagine the user who posted it was already giggling at the thought of seeing Chuck's reaction, were Shaq to name the boat after him.

A fan who clearly has Shaq's safety and well-being high on his priorities' list had a particularly interesting idea.

"Call it Titanic," he wrote.

"There is now way it can happen twice. Besides there are no icebergs around so you should be good."

Another follower instead took a more artistic path, suggesting Shaq should opt for "Sea Shaq Sell Seashells by the Seashore". That doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, so as contingency plan the same user proposed to call it "The Pearl," so Shaq could be known as Captain Shaq Sparrow.

Given the 15-time All-Star is not shy when it comes to forays in the entertainment world, one can only assume he approved of the idea.