Shaquille O’Neal has lent his instantly recognizable face and charming persona to several brands throughout the years. But his collaboration with Effortless Motors might be his most unique partnership.
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He invited the CEO of the car dealership to ‘The Big Podcast’ where the two discussed LeBron James’ inadvertent involvement in their pairing. “It was a mistake that almost went left for him and his family but, hopefully, I fixed it,” O’Neal prefaced before giving Ahmad Abdelrahman the stage.
“I’ve been an entrepreneur for a long time, man.” Abdelrahman began. “Started a new dealership and you know, I had an intern that thought it would be cool to try to get some hype and get our page going.”
In their effort to generate traction on their Instagram page, they posted a clip about delivering a car to LeBron James. In it, a brand-new Bugatti is being loaded onto a truck. The caption read, “Congratulations @kingjames. For trusting Effortless Motors.” Bron would reshare the story shortly thereafter. The problem? James had never bought the car from Effortless.
“Stop the [cap]!!” the four-time MVP wrote on his Instagram story. “LIARS!! I don’t know y’all and I don’t even have that car. CLOUT CHASERS”
Explaining why they posted the story, Abdelrahman said, “It’s a Bugatti, a high-ranked car, so we’re trying to show him some praise, you know? And we’re a small page, I didn’t think in a million years anybody would ever see that.”
Despite the fake video garnering significant criticism online, as they say, all PR is good PR. The video soon caught the eye of the Big Aristotle. He saw it and decided to buy the car. Explaining why, he said, “My thing was, Bron is 6’9’’, 6’10’’, I know ‘cause he’s a friend of mine. If he can fit into this car, cause I thought it was his, if he can fit into this car and he don’t want it, I’mma call old boy up.”
His relationship with Abdelrahman has only strengthened. He has already purchased eight cars from Effortless Motors. However, he hasn’t taken any freebies from them. He insists that he pay for every car he buys. Explaining why, he said, “You wanna know what type of person I am? That’s the type of person I am. I see a kid on the internet who’s just starting his business and I support him…He’s like, ‘I want to give you this free car,’ I’m like, ‘Bro, just be my friend, I don’t want nothing for free.”
Not only is the Hall of Famer giving Abdelrahman business, but he’s also helping the LA-based entrepreneur get more customers. In September, when Shaq bought a Cybertruck from Effortless Motors, he made a viral video of his own, poking at LeBron’s earlier comments about the dealership. “I’m suing Effortless Motors because they did my sh*t right,” O’Neal wrote on Instagram.
He has good reason to be loyal to the brand too, since they also secured him a widebody Tesla Cyberbeast months ahead of its official release. It’s a relationship that started inadvertently but has blossomed into a solid partnership.
