Shaq issues a one-on-one challenge... in spelling
O'Neal takes on last year's champ in Washington DC
...and challenges last year's champion, Kavya, to a spell-off. But this year's finalists will coach him!
Photographer: Scrippsbee
Posted: 06/04/2010
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Basketball great Shaquille O'Neal will try to add another championship title to his resume: spelling champion.
The hoops star challenged last year's Scripps National Spelling Bee champion, 14-year-old Kavya Shivashankar, to a spell-off on Friday.
O'Neal made an impromptu appearance at the hotel where the bee is under way this week. He challenged Shivashankar onstage after the sixth round of semifinals. She accepted his challenge, even allowing him two misspelled words, warning him she beat Jimmy Kimmel in a similar challenge last year.
"Are you sure you want to do this?" she asked O'Neal, the tallest person in the ballroom. "I did win the national spelling bee last year."
"Keep in mind I have my bachelor's and master's, and I'm ready to go," he said.
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Shaq's spelling association comes from these two brilliant ESPN commercials, check them out:
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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