Shaquille O'Neal "Ni Hao! Ni Hao!"

About

Shaquille O'Neal "Ni Hao! Ni Hao!" refers to a viral video of basketball star and commentator Shaquille O'Neal shouting "Ni Hao! Ni Hao," which means "hello" in Chinese. The clip has seen widespread use in the NBA fandom since being aired in 2011, usually to imply that washed-up players or players who otherwise underperform are about to be playing in China's CBA.

Origin

In December 2011, the Inside the NBA crew of TNT, consisting of Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley and Shaquille O'Neal played a game of "Who He Play For?," a humorous segment in which Barkley and O'Neal competed to see if they knew what teams NBA journeymen were playing with that season. At the end of the segment, they had to guess the team Aaron Brooks was playing for, and Barkley guessed "China or Japan." O'Neal holds up a pre-written card with "Guandong Tigers" written in perfect Chinese, then cries "Ni Hao! Ni Hao!" as he takes a victory lap. The clip was uploaded to YouTube^[1] on December 28th, 2011, by YouTuber tertoros, gaining over 2.4 million views in 13 years (shown below).

Spread

The clip saw multiple viral reposts over the following decade. For example, it was reposted to the NBA on TNT Facebook page on September 2nd, 2015, where it gained over 6,800 likes in nine years.^[2]

The clip started seeing use in memes starting in the early 2020s, alongside the rise in memes about washed up NBA players going to play in China.

A clean repost of the video was made by user @AdamsVid^[3] on April 22nd, 2021, gaining over 15 retweets and 40 likes in three years (shown below, top). On June 20th, Twitter user @ojkobs^[4] posted a Ben Simmons variation of the video, gaining over 20 retweets and 45 likes in three years (shown below, bottom).

The meme also saw use on TikTok in the 2020s. For example, on October 26th, 2022, TikToker @soly.sports^[5] used it to joke about Eric Bledsoe, gaining over 1,500 likes in 18 months (shown below, left). On May 2nd, 2023, TikToker tashanda.m^[6] used it to joke about Dillon Brooks, gaining over 32,000 likes in one year (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References