He’s said it before, and he said it again this week – and demonstrated it, too. Shaq says he just likes to see people smile. For one man in a Zales jewelry store, that was definitely the case. O’Neal offered to pay off the man’s purchase of an engagement ring!
Yes, there’s a video of the whole thing. You can see it here: https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/31209382/shaquille-oneal-saw-man-buying-engagement-ring-decided-pay-it Not surprisingly, the whole thing has gone viral.
Shaq talked about it a little on his regular appearance on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” program. “This happened yesterday. So I was in Zales, looking for some loop earrings and I seen the guy come in and he was just so shy and he was saying, ‘Hey, how much do I owe to pay off my ring?’ So I said, ‘My man, how much is the ring?’ I’m not going to say the amount, but it’s not much for me.”
In the video, O’Neal is seen apparently squaring away the bill with the associate before he goes to shake the hand of the man who was buying the ring and then patting him on the back.
Shaq followed up by saying he wasn’t doing it for the publicity. (Honestly, he gets plenty of pub for other things, right?) “I didn’t mean for that to get out because I don’t do it for that,” O’Neal continued. “The guy just came in, he was a young kid, hard-working guy and was saying, ‘Hey I can come back in the next month, and the next month’ like layaway, he puts the money down. So I said, ‘Tell your girlfriend I got it. I’ll take care of it.’ At first, he didn’t want to take it and said ‘I can’t do that’ so I said ‘Don’t worry about it, I do it all the time.’ I’m just trying to make people smile, that’s all.”
Along with his TV time on Inside The NBA, Shaq has become quite the businessman and entrepreneur since his playing days ended. He’s absolutely one of the most recognizable people in the world, in sports or just plain regular life.
Shaq says he’s done this kind of thing many times before: “This is something that I do every day. The other day, me and my mom went furniture shopping and this lady, she had an autistic daughter and she was also looking to pay for some furniture. I just took care of it. I’m into making people happy. Whenever I leave the house, I just try to do a good deed.”
Keep up the amazing great work, big fella!