Shaquille O’Neal transcends the basketball world, the human physical-dimension world and has become a cultural force since his retirement from the National Basketball Association.
And he’s a do-gooder, too!
Shaq transcended the be-a-good-person category on Monday when he stepped up and purchased an engagement ring – for someone he’d never met.
While at a Georgia jewelry store, O’Neal was caught on video paying for the ring a store customer was planning to buy.
A video clip posted on Instagram by Shaq Fu Radio, the NBA Hall of Famer’s streaming platform, shows the big fella handing a credit card to a store employee and shaking hands with the customer.
O’Neal has a very public platform on TNT’s very popular NBA show, “NBA on TNT,” and talked about the exchange on Tuesday.
He said he was at a Zales store shopping for earrings in McDonough, Ga., where he owns a home. He heard a conversation and decided to act (probably a better performance than Shaq’s in the 1996 movie “Kazaam,” but we digress).
O’Neal told the TNT audience: “He was saying, ‘Hey, how much do I owe to pay off my ring?’ And I was like, ‘My man, how much is the ring?’ I’m not going to say the amount, but this is something I do every day. … I’m into making people happy, so whenever I leave the house, I just try to do a good deed.”
Shaq said his initial offer was refused but the 7-footer was undeterred – and he can be persuasive.
“Don’t worry about it,” O’Neal recalled saying, “I do it all the time. I’m just trying to make people smile.”
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