“Shaquille O’Neal really spent $1 million in one hour without knowing what taxes were”: When the then-Magic rookie blew his first paycheque on cars, jewelry, and a house

Shaquille O’Neal blew his entire money from his paycheque on cars, jewelry, and other fancy items without knowing that he’d have to pay for taxes too.

With his net worth estimated to be around $400 million, today, Shaquille O’Neal is one of the very few retired NBA superstars who is smart in the business decisions he takes. However, there was a time when Shaq was younger, carefree, and wasn’t as wise as he is today.

Back in 1992, as O’Neal was entering the league, The Diesel received his first cheque, signing a $1 million endorsement deal with a trading card company. The then-20-years-old wasted no time in spending the entire sum.

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Only an hour after receiving the amount, Shaq purchased two matching Mercedes Benz cars worth $150,000 for himself and his father, and a smaller one worth $100,000 for his mother. After taking care of his parents, Shaq further splurged the remainder of the amount on jewelry and clothes among much other stuff.

Before Shaq knew it, he was summoned by his bank manager, who warned the future HOFer. O’Neal disclosed what the manager said:

“[T]he president of the bank pulls me in and he says, ‘Sir, I love you. I don’t want you to be like all these athletes that go broke. You need to get your stuff together.’”

Shaquille O’Neal admitted to hiring a business manager after splurging $1 million in an hour

Shaquille O’Neal narrated the entire series of events from that day.

It was me being overly happy-slash-irresponsible. My agent called me and said, “Hey, you’ve got a million dollars.”

But I didn’t subtract his 15%, right? I didn’t subtract the Texas state tax or the FICA. So, in my mind, I was just trying to do the simple math. I always wanted a fancy Mercedes-Benz. I used to go to the 7-Eleven and get the fake Mercedes, the little ones and just drive them, you know, on top of my bed and – I’m gonna get one of these one day.

So, once I knew I got that million dollars, I went to the bank like a big-time guy and set up a little checking account. And I said “Okay, I’ve got a million dollars. Here you go, sir.”

So, I went to the Mercedes dealership. The guy says $150,000. I write him a check, give it to him. So now, in my head, a million minus $150,000, I’ve still got $850,000 left, right?

So, I get home. My father says “That’s nice. Where’s mine at?”

Go buy the same car for my father. I’m good. I’ve got $700,000 left. And then came back home. My mother said, “I want the smaller version,” which cost $100,000, so in my mind, I’ve got $600,000. So now, I’ve gotta go do what all the homeboys do – gotta buy rings and diamonds and earrings and this and that.

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The then-Orlando rookie then revealed how he decided to learn from this lesson and hired a business manager for himself.

And I was like 50, $60,000 in the hole. So, I was just writing checks. I was buying TVs. I was just buying stuff I didn’t even need. So after that, I said, “You know what? I need to get me a business manager.”

Luckily, I had a lot of hard lessons early, but I’m the type of guy that – I don’t like to miss two shots in a row, even if it’s a free throw.