Shaquille O’Neal is arguably one of the top 10 best NBA players of all time. He made an impact as soon as he was drafted by the Orlando Magic in 1992 and started to become a winner when he earned three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers from 1999-2002 and a championship with former all-star Dwyane Wade on the Miami Heat in the 2005 season.
In an upcoming episode of Real Sports With Bryant Gumble set to air on March 27 at 10:30PM ET, O’Neal discusses how he was able to be so successful off the court when he retired. He’s been able to garner numerous endorsement deals and commercials over the years.
“The Shaq brand is all about fun” said O’Neal to Bernard Goldberg. I wanna be the guy that, for a brief moment of time, makes you go, raise your endorphins, raise your cheek bones when you think about it. I want to be that guy to make people laugh.”
Aside from endorsements, O’Neal has been able to push his own products such as sneakers and jewelry. He told Goldberg that the best amount of money he’s made in a season was $30 million but he’s made more money off of endorsements than his NBA revenue.
O’Neal told Goldberg a story at LSU about how his marketing professor wanted students to bring something in to class that has a good chance of being sold. He brought in his own Shaq merchandise and the professor failed him.
“My marketing professor said, ‘Okay, class, bring me something that you could see being sold in the foreseeable future.’ So, you know me,” said O’Neal. I came in with the Shaq shoes, Shaq socks, Shaq shirt, Shaq everything. And the guy gave me a F. He actually embarrassed me in front of the class. He said, ‘Shaq, I know you’re full of yourself and I see you put a lot of time into this, but if you look at the climate of the NBA, big guys are not sellin’. This’ll never work.’“
Charles Barkley has been on set with O’Neal on Inside The NBA on TNT for years now after being rivals during their NBA career. Barkley has praised O’Neal for his off the court ventures and even admitted that O’Neal has more money than him.
“Of course. He got a lot more money than me” said Barkley. “I will tell you this one thing about him. He says, ‘I get all my companies together that I work for, once a year.’ And he says, ‘How can I do better for the company?’ That’s pretty smart on his part.”
Watch more from O’Neal’s conversation with Goldberg on March 27 at 10:30PM ET on HBO.
