LEAKED audio: Shaq offered ‘top dollar’ for dirt on Shannon Sharpe pre-$50M lawsuit

NFL Hall of Famer and ESPN football analyst Shannon Sharpe was recently hit with a $50 million lawsuit accusing him of rape, battery, and emotional abuse. The plaintiff, whom Sharpe has identified as OnlyFans model Gabbi Zuniga, has accused Sharpe of raping her twice, recording sexual encounters without consent, and threatening her.

Zuniga’s attorney, Tony Buzbee, who’s litigated against several high-profile black celebrities — including Jay Z, Sean "Diddy" Combs, and Deshaun Watson — released a short audio clip to TMZ, in which Sharpe can be heard telling Zuniga, “I'm going to f**king choke the s**t out of you when I see you.” Sharpe has vehemently denied all allegations, claiming the relationship was consensual and that the audio clip was intentionally edited to misrepresent a consensual interaction.

Now another audio clip has been leaked, pouring even more gasoline on the controversy. This clip from March 2025 allegedly captures former NBA player Matt Barnes claiming that Shaquille O'Neal was offering "top dollar" for incriminating information on Shannon Sharpe.

- YouTube

“He said that Shannon did some s**t back to him a while back, and he's been awful, so that's why he's doing this. But please, please, please keep his name quiet,” Barnes allegedly says.

Barnes has denied the authenticity of the audio clip, claiming it was AI-generated.

Despite his denial, Jason Whitlock says high-profile celebrities putting a “financial bounty” on those they don’t like is sadly very common.

“Shaq's a billionaire, and he's got a problem with Shannon Sharpe. He can put money out and say, ‘Anybody – I got 500,000 bucks or 50,000 bucks or 100,000 bucks or a million bucks if you got dirt on Shannon Sharpe,'" he says.

He recalls a conversation he had with his friend, former NFL player Derrick Thomas, in the “late 1990s,” during which Thomas told him there was “animus and beef” between Shaq and Sharpe over a woman.

Jason doesn’t know if this age-old rivalry has anything to do with Shaq allegedly offering a high price for dirt on Sharpe, nor does he know if the Zuniga lawsuit is connected in any way to Shaq’s alleged vendetta.

“I'm not saying Shaq is involved in the downfall of Shannon Sharpe here, but what I'm saying is, like, these guys at this level, when ... you live as unrighteously as [Sharpe] has, you've left dirt out there for people to use to compromise and embarrass you and take you down,” says Jason.

“Shaq makes it no secret he's some sort of mason,” he explains. He and those like him “make it no secret that they feel like they're power players in control of the culture.”

This scandal, he says, shouldn’t surprise anyone.

“We love to celebrate these athletic billionaires without reflecting on how much power we're granting them and then what cultures are they attached to,” Jason says. “When they all attach themselves to hip-hop — that degenerate, pagan, demonic culture … we should not be shocked at the ramifications of that and where that ends up leading.”

To hear more of Jason’s commentary, watch the clip above.

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