Shaquille O’Neal lets fans see prized belongings in his Orlando home on Fox News’ “Objectified” this weekend.
The former NBA star also opens up about an incredible business blunder — and it wasn’t leaving the Orlando Magic.
Host Harvey Levin gets the discussion rolling. “Let’s talk about the worst thing you ever did which was you had a dinner with the CEO of Starbucks,” Levin says.
“It was the worst business decision in my life,” O’Neal says. “He says to me, ‘Shaq, I want to open up these Starbucks in African-American communities in inner cities.’ And my thing was if I don’t like your product, I will never do it.
“So I’ve never seen black people in my family drink coffee. So in my mind I was like ‘Sir, sorry to disrespect you. I know you have a great product, a lot of my business friends drink it, but I don’t think it’s gonna work.’”
Levin says: “You kind of misjudged that.”
O’Neal agrees: “Yeah I did, I really did.”
“Objectified” airs at 8 p.m. Sunday on Fox News Channel.
O’Neal also talks about his physically abusive stepfather, a brush with a life of crime and nearly losing his fortune. And he discusses former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant.
“We are the most enigmatic, controversial, dominant one-two punch in the history of the game,” O’Neal says.
“There was a falling-out,” Levin says.
“It didn’t affect me because I had to sit back and understand what he was going through,” O’Neal says. “Like he was going through a real life situation.”
But Levin tells O’Neal that Bryant “threw you under the bus.”
“Yeah, he did, but I forgive him, let it go,” O’Neal says. “Because my mother knows me. She knows that I was getting ready to go off and do something that would still be talked about to this day.”
It’s a return visit to Orlando for “Objectified,” which featured Hulk Hogan in September.
For the series, Levin has talked to Martha Stewart, Tyler Perry, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Judge Judy Sheindlin and “Shark Tank” star Mark Cuban.
Donald Trump, then president-elect, starred in the pilot that aired last year.