Shaquille O’Neal appeared on Angel Reese’s Unapologetically Angel Podcast to discuss his career and reminisce about past incidents. The two LSU alums spoke about shoe deals and Shaq brought up his infamous negotiations with Nike. He revealed that when the sports apparel and shoe company signed Alonzo Mourning; he was pissed off.
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When O’Neal entered the NBA, he was a consensus top pick in the 1992 NBA Draft. With his dominant dunks and towering height, the star center attracted a lot of interest from shoe companies. But Shaq’s negotiations with Nike didn’t go well as they had already signed Mourning. This left the then-Magic star annoyed and pissed off.
O’Neal recounted the story on Reese’s podcast, and said,
“We love you, but we already signed Alonzo Mourning. Now I’m pissed even more. So now I go to my last Nike meeting in a Reebok jacket, legendary story, ‘Cause I wanted to piss them off ‘cause they were pissing me off.”
The legendary center revealed how Nike pissed him off and refused to give him his own shoe. So he went back to Reebok, cleverly told them that Nike was offering him his own shoe and they accepted his demands. So, the then-Magic star signed with Reebok, with a childhood dream coming true.
But despite achieving his goal, Shaq was not going to let Nike off for rejecting him. So in his last meeting with them, he got a little payback and tried to piss them off by wearing a Reebok jacket.
Shaquille O’Neal’s “childhood dream”
In a matter of days, Shaquille O’Neal was able to achieve a childhood dream. He successfully negotiated a deal to have his own signature shoe with Reebok. The legendary big man revealed that it was something that seemed like a fantasy, and before he knew it, the dream had come true. While speaking to Angel Reese, Shaq said,
“The dream, which wasn’t really a dream, it just came true overnight. I got my own shoe.”
The legendary big man managed to have a very successful partnership with Reebok. Although he didn’t manage to sign with the bigger brands at the time, like Nike or Converse, he achieved a childhood dream. His collaboration saw several iconic shoe lines come to life, with the infamous Shaq Attaq having 4 models.
