A picture of an unknown man with his large hands on a woman has been doing the rounds and social media detectives suggested it could be Shaq.
The NBA hall of famer, whose full name is Shaquille O'Neal, has since spoken out after the affectionate photo went viral.
Advert
Maria Ozuna Teachey shared a picture of her with an extremely tall man cuddling her from behind but his head was cut off in the mirror selfie.
Teachey captioned the snap: "Unapologetically us. Can y'all guess who feet? #loveyou."
Her more than 200,000 strong followers quickly swamped her Instagram comments, claiming it was the seven-foot-one-inch, 325-pound, basketball icon - who was alerted of the pic and responded in typical Shaq style.
The viral social media account WorldStar reposted the picture on its Instagram page, captioning it: "Folks on social media seem to think #Shaq has a new girlfriend."
Advert
The former LA Lakers legend commented: "Nope not the kid."
Hilariously Shaq then went on to share a video on his own Instagram account with five women, captioning the post: "Is this my girlfriend too, trust me I’ll let y'all know who my woman is, and by the way my woman name is Shaqirah."
He also posted a clip of himself lip-synching to Denzel Washington's infamous speech in Training Day with the caption: "I will let y'all know when I’m in love."
Advert
Teachey has since deleted the post from her Instagram account, however, it is still up on Facebook.
Shaq's been awfully quiet on the dating front since divorcing ex-wife Shaunie Henderson, the founder and CEO of Amirah, Inc., - the company behind Basketball Wives - in 2011.
The pair have five children together Shareef, Amirah, Me'arah, Shaqir and step-son Myles B. O'Neal from Shaunie's previous relationship. Shaq also has daughter Taahirah O'Neal who he parents with ex-girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh.
Advert
There have been several rumors about who Shaq is dating but he remains tight lipped on the matter.
One thing is for certain however is that the Olympic gold medallist is a sporting icon - who once challenged Michael Phelps in a swimming race.
Back when he was shooting the competitive ABC series, Shaq Vs., the 15-time NBA All-Star finished the race with a time of 23.14 seconds while Phelps completed the event in 24.03 seconds... although I will add he was only swimming 25 yards while the most decorated Olympian of all time had to cover 50 yards, with a five-second head start.
Topics: Celebrity, Instagram, Social Media, Sex and Relationships
Joe Yates