Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal is a mountain of a man at 7’1″, but it turns out his great-grandfather was even taller than him. During an appearance on the Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard podcast, O’Neal spoke about meeting his 7’4″ great-grandfather for the first time.
“My great-grandfather, who I met before he passed away, was 7’4″,” O”Neal said. “… He lived in Dublin, Georgia. And we came back from Germany… [My mother’s] like, ‘You come from great stock.’ And when I seen this man, Dublin, Georgia, on his farm, he had a Ox. He had a plow, and when he took his shirt off, he looked like a He-Man doll.
“Muscles everywhere,” O’Neal continued. “My mom was like, ‘That’s how you going to look when you’re older.’ And I didn’t have glasses at that time, but if I did, I’d have been like (takes glasses off). Chocolate man, bald-headed, such as myself. And he took his shirt off, he did like that, and he wiped his face.
“I’m talking about 14-pack, bicep, it was incredible,” O’Neal added. “My mom’s like, ‘That’s how you going to look.’ And once I seen him, I was like, ‘Okay.'”
Any child would have been blown away seeing that. O’Neal’s great-grandfather’s being that tall might also explain why he is a seven-footer. His mother, Lucille O’Neal, stands at 6’2″ while his biological father, Joseph Toney, is 6’1″. They are tall by normal standards, but nowhere near as big as he is.
O’Neal was 6’6″ by the age of 13, and had grown to 6’10” by 16. He was athletic as well for someone of that size, and it was clear he had the potential to make it big as a basketball player.
O’Neal starred at Robert G. Cole High School and then at LSU before heading to the NBA. The Orlando Magic selected him with the first pick of the 1992 NBA Draft, and he went on to be a dominant force in the league.
In a career that spanned 19 seasons, O’Neal averaged 23.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 0.6 steals, and 2.3 blocks per game. The big man won four titles, three Finals MVPs, one MVP, and two scoring titles along the way. He also made 15 All-Star, 14 All-NBA, and three All-Defensive teams.
O’Neal’s greatness on the court led to him earning about $286 million in salaries during his career, according to Spotrac. We have heard about NBA players squandering generational wealth post-retirement, but that didn’t prove to be the case here.
O’Neal has built up an impressive business empire. He once spoke about all the companies he was involved in, and it’s not a small number.
All that clever investing over the years has resulted in O’Neal now having a net worth of $500 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth. You wonder if the 53-year-old will end up joining the likes of Michael Jordan, LeBron James, and Magic Johnson as NBA billionaires someday.
