Basketball

“Shaquille O’Neal made an estimated $72 million off the Kings!”: How Lakers legend turned over a profit off the most mediocre franchise in the NBA

Tonoy Sengupta
|PublishedJun 10, 2022

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How LA Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal made a fortune off the Sacramento Kings in 2021

Shaquille O’Neal may have made a lot of money during his NBA career, but it seems that the man is going above and beyond after it.

Today, Shaq practically mints money. He obviously works as a panelist on TNT’s Inside the NBA. But, aside from that, the man is always looking for investment, and endorsement opportunities, which is why his name is linked to so many different companies today.

Just like a lot of his other investments, in 2013, the man up and decided that the Sacramento Kings were one such opportunity. So, in 2013, he bought his way into an estimated 2-4% stake in the franchise’s ownership.

Despite the added investment though, the franchise did nothing of note between 2013-2021. So, how is it, that just last year, Shaq made an estimated $72 million off this team stuck in mediocrity?

Allow us to tell you all about this little tale.

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Shaquille O’Neal became bearish on the Sacramento King’s future, and decided to sell his ownership in 2021

If we’re being completely honest on this one, why did the Kings ever seem like a good investment?

At the end of the day, this is the franchise that hasn’t done anything of note since their Conference Finals run in 2002. So frankly, it isn’t very surprising that this turned out to be a bad investment for Shaq. Heck, the man even got clowned for it on national television by the Chuckster of all people.

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So, what does Shaquille O’Neal do? Well, he sells it at a loss, right?

Wrong. Here is what actually happened, as per Donna Tang of Credit Donkey.

“In 2013, Shaq bought a 2% to 4% stake in the Sacramento Kings. But he sold his stake in 2021 in order to be a brand ambassador for online gambling platform WynnBET. The Kings are valued at $1.8 billion. Shaq made an estimated $36 million to $72 million from the sale.”

The Diesel is such a great businessman, he even turned a profit from an organization as mediocre as the Sacramento Kings.

Jesus Christ, if that isn’t the sign of a genius, we don’t even want to know what is!

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About the author

Tonoy Sengupta

Tonoy Sengupta is a Senior Editor at The SportsRush. Coming from an athletically inclined family, he has been surrounded by sports ever since he was 4 years old. But, while initially pouring all his time into Football (soccer), at 14, Tonoy discovered basketball through the countless highlights of Stephen Curry humiliating players from Curry Land. And just like that, a fiery passion for the game was ignited within Tonoy. And soon after, he decided to become a student of journalism, graduating in 2022, and choosing sports as his area of interest. Today, you can find him spending 99% of his time browsing through every type of content on every team in the NBA, before uncorking everything he has found to the world. In the 1% he isn't doing this, you can find him playing Basketball, Football, Volleyball, or practically any other sport he has had the opportunity to learn.