Before Shaquille O’Neal began his 19-year career in the NBA and amassed a fortune worth over $400 million, he and his family lived with limited resources. His parents barely made ends meet to raise the future basketball superstar and his siblings. Shaq has often opened up about how difficult life was growing up. Therefore, he has always wanted to give back to his parents, especially his mother, once he finally ‘made it’.
Advertisement
Witnessing the financial hardships that his parents endured during his childhood made the big man fiscally responsible and gave him a life goal of buying them a wonderful house. When his basketball prowess blessed him with the financial means to fulfill the goal, Shaq did not think twice despite his mother’s initial reluctance to make such a major decision. Reminiscing about the moment he bought his mother a house on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, the four-time NBA Champion told hosts Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo,
“[Buying my mom a house] was my main motivation. Forget the money and the jewelry and all that. But my mama’s house, growing up she never had her own s**t. And that was the best moment for me. Walking into their neighborhood, at their prices, talking to the realtor and she said, ‘It’s $800,000,’ and I said, ‘Okay, we’ll take it.’ I’m like, ‘Mama, we good now. We’ll take it.'”
O’Neal’s lavish spending not only left his mother a bit taken aback, but surprised his grandmother Odessa as well, the other important maternal figure in his life. Therefore, Shaq spent $6 million after that on a house for his grandma. In his book Shaq Uncut, O’Neal revealed that his grandmother had refused to let him buy the mansion and instead settled for a humble living space nearby.
O’Neal’s mother and grandmother’s hesitant reaction toward his heartfelt gestures explains why he’s fiscally responsible. While the house prices wouldn’t have made a dent in his bank balance, they weren’t keen on letting him spend an exorbitant sum on buying them a living space. These values were inculcated in the basketball icon right from childhood by those responsible for raising him, and they’ve stuck with him.
Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t averse to ridiculous spending
While Shaquille O’Neal takes pride in being fiscally responsible and investing in businesses to ensure his wealth keeps multiplying, that wasn’t always the case. In fact, he blew away the first million dollars he earned within 30 minutes of getting the paycheck. Recalling how he managed to accomplish the incredible feat in an interview with GQ Magazine, Shaq was quoted saying,
“I get a check for a million dollars from my trading card company. [And I] Always wanted a black-on-black Mercedes-Benz. So, I go get it. [$150,000] minus a million, I still got [$850,000] left, I’m still good. I get home, my father said, ‘That’s nice. Where’s mine at?’ Me and him we get in the car, go get the exact same car for him. We get home, my mom’s a little jealous. So, we got three Benzes.”
After blowing almost his entire paycheck, O’Neal received a call from the bank manager who scolded him for his outrageous spending and lectured him about how poor financial decisions lead to several athletes going broke right after retirement. That phone call was enough for the then-Orlando Magic star to change his ways when it came to spending his money.
