Shaquille O’Neal revealed that he once splashed $1.3 million on three Rolls-Royce cars just to prove a point to a car salesman.
The NBA legend enjoyed a 19-year professional career, split between six big-market teams, and won three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, and one with the Miami Heat.
Having received 15 All-Star nods during his career, before delving into the career of an analyst on TNT’s Inside the NBA – which is now set to move to ESPN and ABC – along with Charles Barkley, Ernie Johnson, and Kenny ‘The Jet’ Smith, O’Neal was certainly not short of capital.
Although he is one of the highest-paid athletes of all time, one car salesman wasn’t so sure.
Shaq dropped $1.3 million on cars just because he was annoyed
In an episode of the Drink Champs podcast on the Revolt YouTube channel in 2023, the 7-foot-1 former center revealed that he was at a dealership looking to buy a car, but after asking lots of questions, the ‘old guy’ who worked there outright asked him whether he could afford to buy one of the luxury cars he was selling.
“I don’t want to spend $400,000 for a car,” Shaq recounted.
“I’m [in the showroom and] I’m like, ‘Hey man how much is this? How much is that,’ and so finally the old guy says, ‘Yo man, you asked about all these cars, can you afford them?’ he said to me.”
“Now I’m p*****. I said ‘what the f*** did you just say to me?’ So I buy three [Rolls-Royces].
“‘I want that one, that one and that one, and I want them dropped off. Move back the seat today, I want them dropped off’.
“So I’ve got three Rolls-Royces that I never drive, so there goes another million, that’s six.”
The resurfaced clip drew a plethora of social media attention, with some users quickly jumping to the conclusion that Shaq got played by the salesman.
“Best sales trick in the book. Everyone seeks some form of validation, you just got to find what makes them tick,” one user wrote on X (formerly Twitter).
“Insulted him and made bank off the commission,” another fan posted.
“There would have been this moment’s silence as Shaq and his entourage walked out, then the salesman would have turned to his friend and smiled. What a moment that would have been,” a third user wrote.
Although he admitted to never driving any of the cars that he bought, and splashed the cash just to flex on the salesman, there is little wonder why, with the 53-year-old estimated to boast 40-plus cars in his personal collection.
Due to his huge stature, many of O’Neal’s cars have had to have been modified, simply so that they were driveable for him, and yes that includes both Ferraris and Lamborghinis.
Shaq’s random acts of kindness over the years
Although he has the money to spend on himself and his family, O’Neal has often gone viral for his random acts of kindness toward strangers, having been seen to pay for engagements, furniture, bikes, and even laptops for those who are in need.
When recalling a time that he was in Best Buy walking around and came across a mother who was struggling to buy laptops for her children to work at school, O’Neal kindly offered to purchase them all, no questions asked.
When told by the grateful mother that he didn’t have to do such a kind thing, his response was a heart-warming one.
“Yes I do, because that’s what my mom told me to do,” O’Neal recounted, in an episode of Million Dollaz Worth of Game on YouTube. “I’m just trying to lift people’s spirits, make people happy, and just trying to make the world a better place.
O’Neal is also an outspoken character and has been unafraid to challenge points of view from others that he feels aren’t right, such as when he took a swipe at former NFL player Robert Griffin III over some nasty comments he made about WNBA star Angel Reese.
Furthermore, he has not shied away from sharing his disdain for certain athletes, including Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, who Shaq feels is undeserving of making it to the Hall of Fame when the Frenchman’s career is all said and done.
Shaq scored 28,956 points over the course of his lengthy NBA career, and has gone down as one of the best centers to ever step foot onto the hardwood.
But even with that level of talent and wealth, although he may have made some reckless financial decisions, he has also paid things forward, and has always strived to show that humanity is at the heart of everything he does.