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Shaquille O’Neal did very, very well for himself during his time in the NBA, and he was able to amass a sizeable fleet of luxury cars as a result—including a few he only bought to teach a lesson to a salesman who didn’t think he could afford them.
The man most people refer to simply as Shaq earned more than $285 million in contract money alone over the course of the 19 seasons he spent in the NBA during his legendary career, which doesn’t even take into account what he got from the many endorsement deals he seemingly doesn’t have the power to turn down.
O’Neal would be the first person to admit it took him a while to figure out the best way to spend his money, as he once blew through $1 million in a single day after inking his first contract with the Orlando Magic.
He eventually realized that wasn’t a sustainable habit, but if you’ve seen his legendary episode of MTV’s Cribs, you know he wasn’t afraid to splurge a bit once he reached a point where he could firmly afford some lavish purchases.
While he may be relatively smart with his money compared to other athletes who managed to end up broke after earning tens of millions of dollars, there were still some situations where he couldn’t resist the urge to make some objectively foolish acquisitions.
Shaq once spent over $1 million on three cars to get back at a salesman
During an appearance on the Drink Champs podcast, Shaq discussed what transpired after he got his first paycheck from the Los Angeles Lakers—an approximately $20 million deal that ended up being closer to $10 million after taxes.
He admitted he probably bit off more than he could chew in the short term after failing to take that reality into account, as he purchased a house for $5 million and eventually ended up at a Rolls-Royce dealership where things got slightly out of hand:
“I’m in a Rolls-Royce joint. [Mike] Tyson’s in there and he bought two.
So I come in the next day. I’m in Lakers sweats. I’m looking around. I’m looking like a bum.
I like to spend money but I don’t like to waste money. I don’t want to spend $400,000 for a car. So I’m like, ‘Hey man, how much is this? Nah. How much is this one?’ So finally, the old guy says, ‘Yo man, you’re asking about all these cars. Can you afford them?’
Now I’m pissed. I said, ‘What the f— did you just say to me?’ So I buy three. ‘That one, that one, and that one—and I want them dropped off. Move the seat back and I want them dropped off.’
So I have three Rolls-Royce that I never drive. There goes another million.”
The salesman in question was probably embarrassed based on what transpired (it’s pretty wild that someone working at a dealership in Los Angeles wouldn’t know who Shaq was when you consider he’d already made a name for himself with the Magic), but with that said, a sale is still a sale.