"Did you learn that from your step daddy": TikToker slams Shaquille O'Neal for calling him broke after being called out over Kash Patel FBI honor

On September 20, 2026, Shaquille O'Neal drew a public rebuke from TikToker and Instagram commentator Matthew Chappelle, who posts as OG Big Matt and OG Matt, after O'Neal called him poor in a direct message.

Basketball Network reported that O'Neal wrote:

"I hear you broke boy. Have a great time in your apt (apartment) with your family."

The message followed Chappelle calling Shaquille O'Neal out for accepting an honorary FBI Special Agent title from FBI Director Kash Patel. Chappelle had already posted a video on Instagram on September 18 in which he took an old Orlando Magic No. 32 jersey from a closet and threw it in the trash. Basketball Network reported the private message after that video spread.

Matthew Chappelle then answered Shaquille O'Neal in a follow-up clip, saying:

"Did you learn that from your step daddy"

The honor itself was conferred on September 17, 2026, at the FBI National Academy Session 299 graduation in Quantico, Virginia. Kash Patel announced it the same day on X.

Kash Patel congratulated a class of 265 law enforcement officials from around the country and singled out O'Neal. He wrote:

"Congratulations to our newest session of FBI National Academy graduates session 299, represented by 265 law enforcement officials from around the country. This session is historic. FBI was honored to be joined by one of the best supporters of law enforcement in the country, @Shaq, who graduated with this session and became an honorary FBI Special Agent."

Photos from the stage showed O'Neal receiving a plaque and badge. The title is honorary. He did not complete the National Academy's standard 10-week curriculum with the graduating officers and was not sworn in as a working special agent. The academy program is separate from the FBI's new-agent training pipeline.

In a speech at the graduation, he also joked about his Inside the NBA colleague Charles Barkley, saying,

"If you see Charles Barkley, arrest him."

It was a separate remark from the later dispute with Chappelle.

Shaquille O'Neal, the Quantico honor, and the message that followed

Shaquille O'Neal's interest in policing is not new. During his years with the Los Angeles Lakers, he enrolled in the Los Angeles Sheriff's Reserve Academy. He has said the training lasted several years. He later served as a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Port Police, the Miami Beach Police Department, and the department in Doral, Florida.

In 2005, while with the Miami Heat, he received an honorary Deputy U.S. Marshal badge and spoke about wanting a role in law enforcement after basketball. He has repeatedly tied that interest to his stepfather, U.S. Army Sgt. Phillip Harrison, who raised him in a military household and moved the family with his Army assignments.

Shaquille O'Neal has said he does not use the word stepfather for Harrison and calls him the man who made him who he is. Harrison died in 2013.

Matthew Chappelle's September 18 Instagram video mixed news footage of the honorary agent announcement with the jersey being discarded. In the clip, he said:

"I stand on morals and principles."

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He objected to O'Neal accepting the honor from Patel. AllHipHop reported that Chappelle also told O'Neal that a public figure has to choose which audience gives the applause, and that O'Neal no longer belongs only to himself.

After that video spread, O'Neal sent the private note calling Chappelle a "broke boy."

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