Shaquille O’Neal’s Greatest Acting Role

There doesn’t tend to be a ton of NBA action around the Fourth of July. Unless there’s a delayed start like there was during the 2020-21 season, both the playoffs and NBA Draft are already wrapped up.

And while we’re in the midst of free agency, agents and players alike usually spend the holiday grilling burgers, hot dogs, and veggie skewers, eating watermelon and potato salad, and dipping sour cream and onion chips into guacamole, hummuses, and salsas.

But the end of the NBA season also coincided with another exciting development: the arrival of All That and Kenan & Kel to Netflix.

These shows were staples for just about every child of the 90s. As fans will attest, one of the more popular sketches of All That centered around Good Burger.

Good Burger proved so popular, in fact, that Nickelodeon turned it into a movie. In 1997, Good Burger hit the big screen, and Kel and Kenan got into hijinks as Good Burger employees trying to take down a rival burger joint across the street.

In other words, it’s about as 90s as you can get.

Beyond a car driving scene revealing an unleaded gas price of $1.29(!), another hint this movie is from the 90s is the appearance of a svelte Shaquille O’Neal in perhaps his greatest cameo ever.

O’Neal is being interviewed by a pool of reporters after hitting a game-winning shot (likely a backboard-shattering dunk) to make it to the championship.

By this point, O’Neal had already reached the NBA Finals once with the Orlando Magic, but it was before his three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2000-02 and well before his ring with the Miami Heat during the 2006 playoffs.

But O’Neal isn’t worried about any of his future accomplishments. He just wants a burger. Luckily, the Good Burger crew is there to deliver.

Side note that will appeal to about 0.1% of the continental U.S.: the main villain in Good Burger (played by Jan Schweiterman) looks like the lead singer of the band Gob (Tom Thacker, who is now a guitarist with Sum 41). You might remember Gob’s catchy tune, “Give Up the Grudge,” from the Madden NFL 2004 soundtrack.

Enjoy the comparison shot and movie clip below.