Shaquille O’Neal was recently a guest on week 8 of the Let’s Go podcast with Tom Brady, Larry Fitzgerald, and Jim Gray. While on the show, O’Neal revealed a hilarious story about how he met David Beckham and the reason they became friends later on. Dr. O’Neal is a good friend of David Beckham, but hilariously didn’t even know about him until quite later on in his career.
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That’s hardly surprising considering Beckham hails from the world of European football, which was not quite popular in America when Shaq was coming up. Therefore, the two had few reasons to ever link up. However, Becks became an obstacle in Shaq’s path to chase the billion-dollar Empire of Michael Jordan on the list of world’s richest athletes.
Shaq recently recounted the story of his getting acquainted with Beckham for the first time, “David Beckham, who is a good friend of ours, I watched his documentary and I had to text him and say, ‘I never knew you went through all this stuff, ’cause it’s the same thing I went through.'”
“It was crazy, I first met him when I was young time and after Mike[ Michael Jordan], always wanted to be the highest-paid athlete. I took pride in that. But look at the thing, I was always #2 behind this Beckham kid. I was like, ‘Who the f**k is David Beckham!’ Then I met him and I shook his hand and we became friends and all,” the big man added.[21:35]
But it’s understandable why Shaq is placed behind Beckham in his career earnings. Beckham was touted as England’s wonder kid for many years before he ever played a Premier League match. Most of Beckham’s money initially came as he played for world football’s top clubs, Manchester United, Real Madrid, A.C. Milan and P.S.G . Beckham would also suit up for the Three Lions, cementing a legendary career in his country’s colors. All of this football paid Beckham nearly $800 million in career earnings.
Aside from football, Beckham started his own company DB Ventures. The company is responsible for handling Beckham’s other business ventures, such as endorsements with brands like Adidas and Tudor. The Englishman also has his whiskey brand by the name of Haig Club. The British legend launched his own MLS expansion team called Inter Miami, which has grown to $600 million in valuation after the joining of footballing legend Lionel Messi.
The friendship between Shaquille O’Neal and David Beckham
Shaquille O’Neal hasn’t done so bad for himself either. Shaq, who is worth more than $400 million himself, was recently appointed President of Reebok Basketball. The 51-year-old also has a plethora of outlets of the brands 24-hour fitness, Five Guys, Papa John’s and even Krispy Kreme doughnut shop. Not only that, Shaq recently became the second biggest Individual shareholder in Authentic Brands Group, a company which just bought a large share in DB Ventures. This transaction makes Shaq and Beckham business partners.
However, David Beckham and Shaquille O’Neal are more than just business partners, they are good friends. The duo once even lived down the street from each other. This led to an incident, whereby Shaq once found Beckham’s wallet on the sidewalk.
Recounting the incident while on the Late Late Show with James Corden, Shaq said, “I was walking one day in Beverly Hills, and I found a wallet…this was a nice wallet, so I looked and it said ‘David Beckham.’ I said can’t be, and I looked at the ID and it was David Beckham. So I didn’t want to just give it to the front desk, so I tracked him down.”
But that wasn’t all, as Shaq tried to prank Beckham, pretending to be a robber asking for a $1,000,000 ransom. But DB already knew who it was and asked Shaq to stop joking around. Hilariously enough, Shaq decided to keep the cash, even lying to Beckham about the same.
