Sure, we all know that our man Shaq was one of the most dominant (if not THE most dominant) player at his position in NBA history. Shaq-story, if you will. After his retirement from the game, it seems that habit of dominance stuck. Seems like every week, there’s another story of O’Neal’s latest big move in business. Here’s this weeks…
On the floor, during his career, or off the floor in the business world, Shaq is a true king of the endorsement deal. Business sources estimate O’Neal’s commercial endorsements are worth about $200 million in annual earnings. Of course one of the big deals for any NBA player to score is the “sneaker contract.” For Shaq, that happened immediately on his entering the Association in 1992, when he signed with Reebok. For various business reasons, Shaq left Reebok in 1998.
Still, he’s always said he has a soft spot for the company that gave him his first big deal. And recently, the company has brought the big man back in a management position, to try to boost the company’s position in the sport apparel business.
Behind many of Shaq’s business moves – at least when it comes to endorsements and the like – is the man who served as O’Neal’s agent in his early days, Leonard Armato. Armato repped O’Neal from way back – since his days at LSU.
The BIG Podcast with SHAQ
Shaq and Armato have been in a business relationship for years, and personal friends for just about as long. In a recent interview with EssentiallySports (and for their podcast), Armato says after Shaq left Reebok all those years ago, he always felt there was some – as he called it – “unfinished business at Reebok.”
Back in the day, Reebok was definitely playing from behind, always looking ahead at industry leader Nike and their Air Jordan juggernaut. Still, the creation of the “Shaq Attaq” line of shoes really helped Reebok. Still, Armato told EssentiallySports the relationship between O’Neal and Reebok “went sideways” after the first few years.
Watch the podcast interview on YouTube – Click here!
Shaq has told the story about how he was scolded by a “little old lady” on the streets for his “selling out” for big money with Reebok. Was that the reason he left Reebok? Hard to say. But Shaq did walk away from a $40 million contract extension and launch his own line of affordable sneakers through Walmart. Reebok still had NBA star Allen Iverson in-house, but it wasn’t enough.
In the past year, Reebok has brought Shaq back, as president of Reebok basketball. As part of the deal, O’Neal brought Iverson back as well. Apparently he’s told Armato that he’s even interested in buying Reebok, and eventually taking it back to being number one again.
There’s already big business connections between Shaq and Reebok. Back in 2021, the company Authentic Brands Group acquired Reebok from Adidas for $2.5 billion. Shaq is under contract with Authentic on a number of deals, and he’s also the second largest shareholder. No surprise that he was one of the driving forces in having Authentic make the deal for Reebok.
Now Shaq is officially Reebok’s President of basketball operations. Along with Iverson as Vice President, the two have taken on the challenge of creating a business comeback for Reebok. Armato says he’s got a ton of confidence in the new president… we do too.