“You Want to Check My Credit?”: Shaquille O’Neal Was Shocked When Realtor Wanted to Check His Credit While Shopping For a House For Lucille O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal is renowned not only for his successful career but also for his philanthropic efforts and generosity toward his family. The former NBA star has made significant expenditures on his family, including providing for their education.

Shaq’s generosity towards his family has been documented in various interviews and media outlets. He has paid for his siblings’ and children’s college education, in addition to funding their business endeavors.

Additionally, Shaq has purchased homes for his family members, ensuring that they have a comfortable place to call home.

Apart from his immediate family, Shaq has also been known to extend his generosity to his friends and acquaintances. He has donated to several charities and established his own charity organization to give back to the community.

Shaquille O’Neal recounts how he was once asked for his credit score when house-hunting

Shaq has been a larger-than-life public figure for well over 30 years now. Indeed, very few Americans today haven’t heard of the Lakers legend who won them a threepeat. He’s also amassed over $400 million in net worth over the years.

However, during his early years in the NBA, Shaq didn’t have a tenth of his current popularity. This may indicate why a realtor tried to check his credit score once while he was looking to gift a house for his mother. Shaq spoke about it thus:

“I’m like ‘Mother, go pick a house’. And now she’s still wondering – my old-school mom, ‘Baby, that’s too much!’. I’m like, ‘You want it?’. It feels good to just tell her ‘Yeah, give me that’. Without checking credit or none of that.”

“The lady’s like ‘I need to check your credit’. I’m like ‘I beg your pardon?! Excuse me? (I’ve got) straight cash on me.’ My mom was like ‘Baby don’t do that’. I feel like she disrespected me. ‘Hey lady, I want this house, and I want the 10-day closing (documents) right now.”

Needless to say, O’Neal got exactly what he wanted, and has probably never had his credit score checked since then.

Shaq nearly blew through all of his rookie contract money

Over the years, Shaquille O’Neal has proven to be a dab hand when it comes to investing and managing his considerable wealth. He’s grown it several times over the earnings he had from basketball and through commercials.

However, as a 20-year-old rookie drafted no. 1 overall, O’Neal was riding a little too high on life. He once revealed that after spending on cars for himself, his parents, family and close friends, Shaq was over $800k in the hole before playing a single NBA game.

He wised up after that, hiring a wealth manager while also adding to his NBA salaries through endorsements.