Shaquille O’Neal recently sat down for a brand new episode of ‘The Big Podcast‘, which also featured his former Miami Heat teammate, Udonis Haslem. During the show, the two discussed many intriguing stories fans will undoubtedly find interesting, from their time together in Miami. Perhaps the most hilarious one of them all was about Shaq’s ‘fake’ promise to the Championship-winning 2006 Miami Heat squad, including Dwyane Wade, something that Haslem called out the big man on.
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During the time of the story, Haslem was approximately 26 years old, while Shaquille O’Neal was 34 years old. While recounting the tale, Haslem revealed that Shaq was one of the leaders of the team at the time and was looking for a way to motivate his teammates. While he did hit upon a very good strategy, he failed to deliver on his promises.
“Remember what you told me and Dwyane [Wade], if we win [the NBA championship], what you [Shaq] was going to do?” Haslem confronted Shaq on the pod. Shaq stumbled on his words, “I said I’d get you a… what?”
“You said you was going to buy us Bentleys! The man [Shaq] told me and Dwyane, if we win, our first championship, he said, ‘If we win this title [the 2006 NBA championship], I’mma buy y’all Bentleys!’. The man ain’t bought us no Bentleys! We was motivated as hell. But what me and D Wade did, is go about our own business!” Haslem added.
When asked if he and Wade ever had a moment where they wished they had received the luxury vehicle from Shaq, Haslem couldn’t help but exclaim, “Hell yeah!”. It’s hard to blame UH there. After all, he did what he had to do throughout the year, all for a prize that never came in the end. When Shaq was prodded into talking about what happened, he simply joked about having the wrong addresses back then.
While the big fella’s joke was humorous, it is deeply unlikely to have been true. During Miami’s 2006 title run, Shaq was not the best player on the team. However, he was the leader in terms of his Championship pedigree. Therefore, he did what he had to do to motivate his teammates to go for the kill. And it certainly worked.
However, it seems a little bit unlikely of the big man to come up short on his promises. The four-time NBA Champion is pretty much America’s friendly neighborhood Santa throughout the year, buying strangers things in random stores and locations. Money is definitely not the issue here, considering Shaq’s $400 million net worth.
The starting price of a Bentley is roughly $210,000 in the United States. We’ll have to wait and see if Shaq fulfills his promise now that he has been called out on air about it by Haslem.
Shaquille O’Neal has given away several cars in the past
While he may have tried to avoid gifting cars to his Heat teammates, Shaq has done so for others, a number of times. A former teammate of the big man during his time in Cleveland, LeBron James, has benefited from this. For his 25th birthday, ‘The King’ received a Rolls Royce Phantom from Shaq, a luxury vehicle that is worth $400,000. Not bad at all for a birthday present.
This wouldn’t be the last time O’Neal gifted someone a car. In fact, the LA Lakers legend even gifted one of his Rolls Royces to an up-and-coming rapper he recently released a song with.
Collaborating with hip-hop artist Luke Gawne, Shaquille O’Neal released the song, Chaos. At the time, Gawne was already having the time of his life. However, to make his experience even better, O’Neal expressed his support for the rapper by gifting him his $1 million-worth Rolls Royce.
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Again, while these stories emphasize the great character of Shaquille O’Neal, Haslem, and Wade would hardly be the happiest about them. That said, if they prod O’Neal enough, perhaps they might get their luxury vehicles after all.
