Shaquille O’Neal Retirement Via Twitter

by Adam Ostrow
Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal has announced his retirement from the NBA via Twitter and a short video he linked to from the microblogging site on Wednesday.

In the video, which was posted to startup Tout, O’Neal says, “I want to thank you very much, that’s why I’m telling you first I’m about to retire.” A subsequent video asks fans to use the hashtag #shaqname to suggest new nicknames for the man previously known, among other things, as “The Big Shamrock,” “The Big Aristotle” and “Shaq Fu.”

Shaq’s decision to share the news with his followers first should come as little surprise — he was one of the first major celebs to hop onto the service back in 2008 (and seriously engage with it) and remains one of its most visible athletes.


SEE ALSO: Celebrities on Twitter: 30 Famous First Tweets Interestingly enough, Shaq was also an early user of 12seconds, a short-form video startup that ultimately failed. Similarly, Tout also sports a short-form model limiting users to 11 second clips (7-minute abs anyone?). It’s unclear whether Shaq has an official relationship with Tout.

Source: http://mashable.com