“Give Him a Wad of Bills”: A Drug Deal Made with His Money Changed Shaquille O’Neal’s Rule of Helping Homeless People Entirely

Shaquille O’Neal is about as generous as celebrities come. Having had a charitable soul in him for a long time, one of the many communities Shaq has tried to always help is the homeless. Revealing that homelessness is an issue he has been looking to tackle for ages, in his 2011 book, Shaq Uncut, the Big Diesel shared a rather disheartening story of how he tried to help a few homeless people, but things ended badly. He also added that he has changed his approach to how he can help since then.

O’Neal has used his immense wealth to provide financial aid to those who need it. He once even famously tipped a waiter $4000 after eating at a restaurant, simply because that was the amount that the person desired. However, while these instances do sound wholesome at first, they also run the risk of turning distasteful. And for Shaq, as soon as it did, he decided to change up his approach completely.

Shaquille O’Neal no longer gives homeless people money

As he explained in Shaq Uncut, reducing the homeless population of the United States has long been an issue on Shaquille O’Neal’s mind. Due to that, he was prone to giving away large sums of money to people he saw on the side of the roads he walked on. However, two incidents changed that in a hurry. The following is what Shaq wrote in the book:

Once I was in LA and I gave a guy some money, and then I saw him go into the liquor store and buy booze with the money I’d just given him. I couldn’t be angry. It was my fault, really.

Another time some homeless guy asked me to help him out because he was hungry, so I give him a wad of bills. Then I’m driving around and he and some other guy are making an exchange, so clearly now I’m paying for this guy’s drugs.

At that point I decided, You know what? I don’t want homeless people to go hungry, so next time they want money I’m gonna buy them food instead. Now when I see a homeless person and he looks down and out and smells kind of bad, I take him into a restaurant, put him in the corner away from the other customers, and tell the manager, “Here’s a hundred bucks. Let the guy eat whatever he wants—but no booze.”

Shaq had to learn the hard way that giving homeless people a wad of money and walking away was unlikely to ever bear good results. However, the big man does deserve credit for not abandoning hope, and simply changing his approach instead.

Shaq’s charitable escapades have only continued

Shaquille O’Neal has been a big ambassador of education and healthcare for children in the United States. In this regard, the big man is even known to help parents pay for any supplies their children may need for school. Going even deeper than that, however, he also once helped provide free eyecare for over 300,000 kids.

O’Neal truly is a gift that just keeps on giving.