Shaquille O’Neal earned almost $300 million during his playing career in the NBA, which spanned 19 seasons. He was a larger-than-life character who won 4 NBA titles, 3 NBA Finals MVPs, and an MVP Award in 2000, which has seen him go down as one of the greatest to have ever played the game.
For all his greatness on the court, however, it seems like at least early on, Shaq wasn’t all that careful with his finances off it. During his divorce trial in 2008, O’Neal revealed his monthly spending habits and the numbers are quite mind-boggling. As per a report, he was spending over $200,000 a month and the breakdown is quite an interesting one:
• $110,000 for monthly vacations
• $26,500 for babysitting
• $23,000 at gas stations
• $17,000 for clothing
• $1,500 for cable TV
$23,000 for gas stations seems ridiculous and the monthly vacation trips seem to burn quite the sizable hole in his wallet as well. This doesn’t even include a lot of the day-to-day expenditure, so you have to wonder how much this eventually went up to on a monthly basis for him in 2008. Considering he was on a $20 million a year contract at the time with the Heat ($1.66M per month), you can perhaps understand why he was so loose with his purse strings, but this might have been a bit too much.
Fortunately for O’Neal, he realized there was a need to manage his finances better, and he is reaping the benefits of it right now, having established himself as an incredibly successful businessman. He owns his own shoe brand, “Dunkman”, which has been a massive success and it has provided youngsters with affordable shoes at a time when sneakers from famous athletes seem to cost a fortune. He is still known for some crazy spending sprees here and there, with a famous one being when his credit card was declined at Walmart because the company felt that someone must have stolen his credit card to have spent $70k in one go.
That’s not to say that Shaq only throws money around in his post-playing career, as he does a lot of good deeds with it as well. He paid for a man’s engagement ring and he also helped out a mother by buying furniture for her after her house burned down. He has also bought over 2000 pairs of shoes from a salesman who had given him his first pair for free when Shaq was a teenager. While he may have caught some flak over the years for his behavior, there is no doubt that the man truly does have a heart of gold and he has helped out so many people in need.
Apart from the field of sports, Shaq has multiple investments in different fields of life as well, and his stock just keeps soaring at this point. He has also, of course, been very successful on the small screen with ‘Inside The NBA’ and is a man well set for the rest of his life.
