Shaquille O’Neal reached the heights of professional basketball, winning four championships, an MVP, and numerous other honors over his Hall of Fame career. Off the court, he has built a business empire through a series of sage investments, including in early-stage tech firms that are now household names.
Early Life
Shaquille (Shaq) Rashaun O’Neal was born on March 6, 1972, in Newark, New Jersey. His first name, chosen by his father, is Arabic for “Little Warrior.” O’Neal’s father, a former Seton Hall University basketball recruit, went to jail when his son was a baby. Shaq’s mother, Lucille O’Neal, raised him for a time as a single parent before marrying an Army reservist named James Harrison, who became Shaq’s stepfather.
Harrison’s job took him and his family around the world, and O’Neal spent time in Germany during his high-school years. It was there, as a 6’6″ 13-year-old, that he met Louisiana State University (LSU) basketball coach Dale Brown. O’Neal finished high school in San Antonio, winning a state championship there before joining coach Brown at Louisiana State University. He majored in business at the institution, a harbinger of things to come.
Pro Basketball Career
A two-time All-American and the 1990-91 Associated Press Player of the Year, O’Neal left college after three years to enter the NBA. Standing 7″1′ and weighing well over 300lbs, he was taken No. 1 overall in the 1992 draft by the Orlando Magic.
O’Neal started his pro career with a bang, winning Rookie of the Year honors in the 1992-93 season. In his third year, he led the Magic to the NBA Finals, where the team fell to the Houston Rockets in four games. After his fifth year in Orlando, he joined the Los Angeles Lakers. There, he continued to excel. Together with guard Kobe Bryant and head coach Phil Jackson, Shaq and the Lakers went on to win three consecutive NBA titles. Shaq himself won the Finals MVP each year along with league MVP honors in 1999-2000.
Despite the team’s success, O’Neal and Bryant often didn’t get along. Eventually the acrimony resulted in the Lakers trading O’Neal to the Miami Heat. There, as he did with Bryant earlier in their partnership, O’Neal teamed with another young guard, Dwyane Wade. Together, the pair led the Heat to the 2006 NBA championship. The 2006 season would be the final one in which O’Neal won a championship and the last in which he averaged at least 20 points. No longer the player he once was, he spent time in Phoenix, Cleveland, and Boston before retiring in 2011.
Off the Court
O’Neal began building a career for himself outside of basketball as far back as his time with the Magic. Over the ’90s, he starred in three feature films and recorded a trio of rap albums that went either gold or platinum.
While he found success as a performer, he admits that, during his early years in the NBA, he didn’t always have the greatest business sense. In a 2020 Vanity Fair article, he recalls being offered $20 million in equity in a new online venture. The young center demanded that amount in cash instead, causing the potentially lucrative deal to fall apart.
Tech Investments
O’Neal was aware that a disturbing number of professional athletes lose their fortunes within only a few years of ending their careers. Driven by the fear of being another statistic, he returned to LSU to finish his business degree, graduating in 2000. Completing his degree also fulfilled a promise he had made to his mother after leaving LSU for the NBA.
In 2002 O’Neal made a decision that proved he had learned from his early business miscalculations. When his agent introduced him to an investor in a then-private company known as Google, O’Neal—believing Google was primed for success—seized on the opportunity and invested in the search engine. While he declines to reveal how much he made from the deal, putting money into Google before it went public surely paid off substantially. In the Vanity Fair article, he says his only regret was not investing more.
Years later, after he had earned both an MBA and a doctor of education in organizational learning and leadership, O’Neal learned about a product called Ring. Following his philosophy of investing only in businesses whose products he enjoys, he sought out Ring’s inventor and bought into the company. O’Neal then used his contacts in law enforcement to help Ring receive local subsidies, thus helping it to grow.
Leveraging his celebrity to increase the company’s profile, Shaq also appeared in Ring’s adds. His hard work paid off: Ring was eventually purchased by Amazon for more than $1 billion. While he again declines to discuss specifics, O’Neal presumably netted a significant return on his investment.
Other Business Ventures and Philanthropy
Outside of his tech investments, which in addition to Google and Ring include a pre-IPO Lyft, Shaq has held stakes in car washes, a gym, a movie theatre, and restaurants like Five Guys, Crispy Creme, and Papa Johns. Also a real estate investor, he has purchased commercial and residential properties in cities across the country.
In the wake of his success, O’Neal began to give back. A longtime ambassador for Boys & Girls Clubs of America and a board member of the nonprofit Communities in Schools, he has shown an interest in causes that benefit young people. In 2019 he pursued this interest further by establishing the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation. Under his oversight as chairman, the foundation works to create opportunities for youth from or living in underserved communities.