Shaquille O’Neal served in class action lawsuit against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and several celebrity representatives, the plaintiffs’ attorney said in a statement Sunday night. The announcement came just days after the Florida judge denied a petition to allow NBA legend service electronically after allegedly dodging service for several months.

“I wanted you to know the good news that we just personally serviced Shaquille O’Neal near his home in Atlanta,” attorney Adam M. Moskowitz, who leads the litigation, said in a statement. “The good news is that his home camcorders recorded our service and we have made it very clear that he must not destroy and/or erase any of those CCTV footage because it must be preserved for our legal process.”

Moskowitz and his law firm were given a Monday deadline to serve O’Neal, who, according to Moskowitz, “had been in and out of our process servers for the past 3 months.”

O’Neal, who currently works as an analyst at Inside the NBA, was the latest defendant in the lawsuit to be served, according to the email petition.

The petition alleged that the technology server attempted dozens of times to serve O’Neal at his residences in Texas and Georgia, as well as by mail at the residence and his offices in Atlanta, from where “Inside the NBA” is broadcast.

Lawyers argued in the motion that after attempting to service O’Neal in Texas, the process’ server “received an ominous and threatening text message from O’Neal or someone acting on his behalf.” The text message also claimed that O’Neal lived in the Bahamas, which the law firm then deemed incorrect, the petition said.

In the lawsuit, Bankman-Fried, O’Neal and other celebrity representatives, including Tom Brady and Larry David, are accused of cheating investors FTX.

“Now Mr. O’Neill will have to appear in federal court and explain to his millions of followers his fake ‘FTX: I Am All In’ ad campaign,” Moskowitz said Sunday night.

The four-time NBA champion denies any involvement with FTX outside of a sponsorship deal.

“A lot of people think I’m involved, but I was just a paid advertising rep,” he told CNBC after the lawsuit was filed.

FTX, which collapsed late last year, shuffled customer money between affiliates, using new investors’ funds and loans to pay interest on old ones in an attempt to “keep a veneer of liquidity,” Moskowitz told CBS News in an email.

“FTX were PR and marketing geniuses and knew that such a massive Ponzi scheme – bigger than Madoff’s – could only be successful with the help and promotion of the world’s most famous, respected and loved celebrities and influencers. “He said.

— Kate Gibson contributed to the report.

Russell Westbrook put in a great game in Game 1 as the Clippers beat the Suns in Phoenix to take a 1-0 lead to take home court advantage in a highly anticipated 4-5 game.

Westbrook had a terrible night of shooting, hitting 3 of 19 from the field but grabbing 10 rebounds (including five big ones in the fourth quarter) and blocking Devin Booker’s play in what was truly a sensational individual effort. It was a complete Westbrook experience in every way, and apparently even included an altercation with a fan at halftime in which he walked into a court room and told the fan to “watch your tongue” in a really weird scene.

There are a lot of questions people are asking about this video, including the seemingly odd location of the Suns Arena for a kid just holding a plate of food with no utensils while Russell Westbrook yells at his father (?). These are all very valid questions and the mystery of it all makes the video even more exciting.

As for Westbrook’s confrontation with fans, this is far from the first time Westbrook has taken offense at what fans are saying to him. He’s had trouble with playoff fans before (notorious cases in Utah and Philadelphia), and at the Lakers, he didn’t go along with Westbrick’s fans chanting at him. It’s unclear exactly what prompted this response, but given that Westbrook had to track this fan down the tunnel to the room, it’s clear they crossed a line with him and one would expect teams and/or the league to look into exactly what happened. to trigger this action from rus.