It is common to come across videos of Shaquille O’Neal strolling through public shopping destinations like Walmart and Target after his retirement. However, that wasn’t always the case. There was a time when he used to look down upon affordable shopping centers.
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In her book Undefeated: Changing the Rules and Winning on My Own Terms, Shaquille O’Neal’s ex-wife Shaunie Henderson chronicled Shaq’s change of perception about mega retail stores like Walmart and Target.
Shaq was already a multi-millionaire by the time he had kids with his then-wife, Shaunie. When Shaunie used to ask him for things during their marriage, he initially sent her to expensive stores.
He felt that stores like Target were only for people with average means and a budget to adhere to. Therefore, the big man thought it was better to shop from places that suited his tax bracket as a multi-millionaire.
This attitude used to irk his wife because she felt that Shaq was paving the way for an elitist attitude in the family. It could have had a bad influence on their kids as they could have considered low-income families to be beneath them.
Apart from that, she couldn’t fathom needlessly spending money for expensive products, when much affordable options could get the job done.
Shaunie wrote in her book,
“He [Shaq] would tell me to go to Bloomingdale’s or Neiman Marcus to buy onesies for the kids, and I would say, ‘Why would I spend a hundred dollars for a silk onesie that the baby’s going to outgrow in thirty days when I could get three Carter’s onesies at Target for twenty?'”
“Well, he wasn’t having any of that. He thought of Target as the place where the poor people shopped, another version of Walmart.”
However, an incident drastically shifted Shaq’s viewpoint about public convenience stores.
When his son Myles B. O’Neal was in second grade, Shaq took him for Halloween shopping at a Target store. As Myles guided him through the store, O’Neal was impressed with the variety of shopping items.
He never knew that one could get all sorts of supplies in the same space. His excitement reached such levels that he called Shaunie to showcase his elation at finding such a handy shopping venue.
“He [Shaq] called me and he sounded like a kid who had just seen Disneyland for the first time. “Oh my God, they have everything here!” he shouted through the phone,” Shaunie added.
While Shaq was elated, his son was annoyed because he wanted to get done with his Halloween shopping quickly.
Since it was common for him to visit such stores, he wasn’t particularly enamored by it. But O’Neal kept exploring Target like he had discovered a hidden treasure chest. Henderson wrote,
“I could hear Myles in the background, getting more and more annoyed as he tried to drag his father over to the aisle where they had the Halloween costumes.”
“[Shaq said] ‘Babe, why didn’t you tell me this place had everything? They have drawers (his word for underwear). Did you know that? I could’ve been coming here the whole time!’ He was fascinated by everything, even things he didn’t need at all,” she added.
This story is intriguing because O’Neal wasn’t necessarily someone who had neglected his roots completely. His mother Lucille O’Neal was heavily involved in his finances during his early NBA days and kept reminding him of his humble beginnings.
However, his realization at Target was crucial because he had forgotten such experiences after accumulating generational wealth.
