A viral post shared on X claims former professional basketball player Shaquille O’Neal purportedly threw 2024 Democratic vice presidential candidate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz out of his Atlanta restaurant.

Shaq threw Tim Walz out of his restaurant in Atlanta! What’s missing is, the @KamalaHarris campaign sent Tim Walz in the restaurant, thinking Shaq would be impressed and it backfired! Crickets from the @ajc @TIAreports @morsea @AJCLeroyChapman. What if that had happened to…

— Vernon Jones (@VernonForGA) September 10, 2024

Verdict: False

The claim originally stems from Esspots.com, a self-described satirical website. There is no evidence to support the claim.

Fact Check:

Walz is set to campaign Friday in Wausau, Wisconsin in support of his running mate, 2024 Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The visit is just one stop on the Harris-Walz ticket’s planned tour of key battleground states, the outlet reported.

The X post, viewed 19,000 times as of writing, claims O’Neal purportedly threw Walz out of his Atlanta restaurant. “Shaq threw Tim Walz out of his restaurant in Atlanta! What’s missing is, the @KamalaHarris campaign sent Tim Walz in the restaurant, thinking Shaq would be impressed and it backfired!” the post, shared by former Georgia Republican Rep. Vernon Jones, reads in part.

The post includes a link to an article published on the website “S-News” with the following headline, “Shaq Throws Tim Walz Out of His Restaurant: ‘Don’t Come Back Here, You’re a Disappointment.'”

The claim is false. Check Your Fact conducted a keyword search and found another iteration of the claim shared on Facebook via the SpaceX Fanclub page. A comment on the post includes a link to the same news story about O’Neal purportedly throwing Walz out of his restaurant via Esspots.com.

According to its “About” page, Esspots.com is a “subsidiary of SpaceXMania.com specializing in Satire and Parody News” and “your one-stop destination for satirical news and commentary about the United States of America.”

Likewise, the website’s “Disclaimer” page reiterates it is a “website that specializes in satire, parody, and humor. Before you proceed to read our content, we would like to emphasize that nothing on this website is real. All of the articles, stories, and commentary found on Esspots.com are entirely fictitious and created for the purpose of entertainment only,” it continues.

In addition, Check Your Fact did not find the claim referenced on Walz’s website or his verified social media accounts. O’Neal also does not appear to have publicly commented on the claim. (RELATED: Does This Video Show Tim Walz Dancing In A Pink Cowboy Hat?)

Furthermore, Check Your Fact found no credible news reports to support the claim. Actually, the opposite is true. On Sept. 10, Snopes debunked the claim.

Check Your Fact has contacted O’Neal via his website and Walz’s office for comment.