Shaquille O'Neal's next move: With his TNT co-host Charles Barkley retiring and Inside the NBA's future in doubt, will he return to rap, acting, business, or pursue his long-time dream?
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Shaquille O'Neal has never struggled to occupy his time.
Since becoming a household name at Louisiana State, the Big Aristotle has moonlighted as an actor, DJ, commercial pitchman, and an investor while primarily focusing on his careers as a player and TV analyst.
But with his Inside the NBA co-host Charles Barkley announcing his intention to retire after the 2024-25 season, when TNT Sports will lose its media rights to the league, the 52-year-old appears to be at a crossroads.
'I'm glad I have different options to fall back on,' O'Neal told Draymond Green's podcast earlier this month.
Will he remain an analyst at a rival network? Focus on his growing real estate empire? Release a sequel to his 1994 video game, Shaq Fu? The following is a look at the various areas O'Neal could turn as Barkley, his long-time partner in crime, exits stage left. Shaq's job title might be changing, but it's still the big fella's world and there are no shortage of possibilities.
Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley appear on Family Feud with their TNT co-hosts
Inside the NBA host Ernie Johnson with analysts Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and O'Neal
REAL ESTATE
Born in New Jersey and raised on US Army bases from Texas to West Germany, O'Neal grew up without any real roots.
He was equally nomadic in the NBA, moving from Orlando to Los Angeles to Miami to Phoenix to Cleveland and, finally, Boston.
As a result, O'Neal now has mansions across the country, including Georgia, where he worked at TNT Studios in Atlanta.
Over the last four years, O'Neal bought four different homes in McDonough, Georgia. The properties combine for 30 acres of land, which could indicate and intention to build a bigger estate.
He also owns a 4,600-square-foot home in Hampton, Georgia.
His most recent purchase is a five-bedroom, six-bathroom estate in the Dallas suburb of Carrolton that occupies over 5,200 square feet. This purchase comes just months after selling his mansion in Orlando, Florida.
Records obtained by the New York Post show that O'Neal also owns a 6,400-sqaure-foot home in Sugar Land, Texas.
Additionally, In 2021, O'Neal bought a modern, sleek estate spanning 4,800 square feet in Las Vegas, Nevada.
What, exactly, O'Neal has planned for all of these properties remains a mystery, but one should never doubt his business acumen.
The NBA legend owns nine lavish properties across Nevada, Texas, Georgia and Florida
Over the last four years, O'Neal bought four different properties in McDonough, Georgia
BUSINESS
O'Neal made as much as $27 million in salary for a single NBA season, but now claims to be earning more money than ever thanks to his litany of endorsement deals and his own brand, which makes everything from sneakers and suits to his very own jewelry line.
The products O'Neal endorses includes Gold Bond Powder, The General car insurance, Icy Hot, Oreos, and Krispy Kreme donuts. He even owns several franchises of the latter.
'The Shaq brand is all about fun,' O'Neal told Bernie Goldberg during a 2018 episode of HBO's Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. 'I want to be the guy that, for a brief moment of time, makes you go, raise your endorphins, raise your cheek bones when you think about it. I want to be that guy to make people laugh.'
Goldberg asked O'Neil if that's his business model.
'Yes,' O'Neal replied. 'I'm in the fun business.'
Shaquille O'Neal poses with Krispy Kreme Executives in Toronto back in 2018
Prior to O'Neal, the NBA's biggest spokesman were guards and forwards, such as Michael Jordan, Ervin 'Magic' Johnson, and Larry Bird.
But even dating back to his college days at LSU, O'Neal has envisioned himself as a media darling whose endorsement was sold for top dollar.
His teachers, however, were unconvinced.
'My marketing professor said, ''Okay, class, bring me something that you could see being sold in the foreseeable future,''' O'Neal said.
'So, you know me,' he continued. 'I came in with the Shaq shoes, Shaq socks, Shaq shirt, Shaq everything. And the guy gave me a F. He actually embarrassed me in front of the class. He said, ''Shaq, I know you're full of yourself and I see you put a lot of time into this, but if you look at the climate of the NBA, big guys are not selling. This'll never work.'''
That professor has been proven wrong over the years.
In addition to being heavily invested in the bond market, O'Neal is also invested in eSports franchises and several tech companies, not to mention his brief tenure as a Sacramento Kings minority owner.
Nowadays, O'Neal has a reported $400 million business empire after saving roughly 75 percent of his earnings over the years.
O'Neal has been rapping and DJ'ing for years, and recently announced a few upcoming shows
MUSIC
Is he a rapper? A DJ? Both?
O'Neal's long-time love of music is well documented through a series of albums, including his 1993 debut, Shaq Diesel.
He's even cracked the Billboard Hot 100 list with singles such as 'What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock?)' and '(I Know I Got) Skillz.'
O'Neal has also made waves with his live performances, like in 2008, when he referenced his feud with former teammate Kobe Bryant, who had revealed Shaq's alleged infidelities to police as the Lakers guard faced a sexual assault lawsuit in Colorado.
'I should have done what Shaq does,' Bryant allegedly told police in 2003. 'Shaq gives [mistresses] money or buys them cars, he has already spent one million dollars.'
The police report then added: 'Kobe stated that Shaq does this to keep the girls quiet.'
O'Neal responded on stage five years later: 'I'm a horse / Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm gettin' divorced / He said Shaq gave a b**** a mil / I don't do that, because my name's Shaquille.'
And DJ Diesel isn't finished. O'Neal recently announced upcoming shows in Orlando and Nashville.
Kazaam has an approval rating of around 5 percent on the film-rating website Rotten Tomatoes
ACTING
Anyone familiar with O'Neal's music career is sure to know he's also an actor.
Steel, Kazaam, Blue Chips and an upcoming series titled 'Lucky 13' are just a few of his acting roles.
But unlike music, O'Neal may not quite love the film industry.
As he previously told GQ, he was primarily interested in doing the lead role in Kazaam because of money.
'I was a medium-level juvenile delinquent from Newark who always dreamed about doing a movie,' O'Neal said. 'Someone said, ''Hey, here's $7 million, come in and do this genie movie.'' What am I going to say, '''no''? So I did it.'
ESPN/NBC/AMAZON?
Unlike Barkley, O'Neal hasn't publicly refused to work with the NBA's new league partners, NBC and Amazon, or current partner ESPN.
There has been some speculation that he could move to NBC when the network gets league media rights back in 2025, but that rumor is far from official.
POLICE WORK
As Shaq's fans surely know, the big fella has long dreamed about becoming a cop.
In fact, he's even become an honorary member of several departments, and has been involved in a number of police charities as well.
In 2005 he was named an honorary US Deputy Marshall after previously going through Los Angeles County's Reserve Academy to become a reserve officer with the Los Angeles Port Police.
Los Angeles Port officer Shaquille O'Neal with California Attorney General Bill Lockyer in 2003
But it wasn't until after his 2005 trade to the Miami Heat that O'Neal finally saw some action by trailing a suspect accused of assaulting a gay couple. O'Neal ultimately alerted an officer, becoming a hero for the day.
The 7-foot-1 center was driving on South Beach around 3am on a Sunday when he saw a passenger in a car yell anti-gay slurs at a walking couple, said Miami Beach Police Department spokesman Bobby Hernandez at the time.
The man then got out of the car and threw a bottle, hitting one of the pedestrians, who was not seriously hurt. The man got back in the car, which sped off.
O'Neal followed, flagging down an officer who made an arrest, Hernandez said.
Michael Gonzalez, 18, was arrested on charges of aggravated assault and assault with a deadly weapon. The driver of the car was not charged.
O'Neal shakes hands with police officers at an event on Capitol Hill in Washington in 2016
O'Neal went on to become an honorary Miami Beach police officer with a $1 annual salary.
'For this incident I don't want to be credited as an individual who does police work,' O'Neal said in a statement. 'I want to be credited as a Miami Beach police officer.'
In 2006, O'Neal was involved in a home raid in rural Virginia, and a decade later he was sworn in as sheriff's deputy in Jonesboro, Georgia.
More recently, the Broward County (Florida) Sheriff's Department named him an honorary deputy in 2019.
'Basketball legend @SHAQ goes by many nicknames, and now added to that list is Deputy Shaq,' read a tweet from the Department. 'The big man now works as an auxiliary deputy with the #BSO. Sheriff Tony sat down with Shaq and the two talked about the different ways law enforcement works to keep communities safe.'
FAMILY
O'Neal has admittedly made mistakes in marriage, and has become more vocal about spending time with his family.
In a recent podcast with former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce, O'Neal confessed to 'dumba** mistakes' in his marriage that he now regrets: 'I lost my whole family. I'm in a 100,000-square-foot house by myself.'
A friend of O'Neal's doubled down on the remarks to in an interview with the New York Post.
'The point I was trying to make is that I want other people to learn from the mistakes that I made,' the anonymous friend told the Post. 'You get married, you make vows and you should be thankful for what you have. Stay with it. I want people, especially those in the public eye, to learn from me.
'He is telling people to live in the present and care about their families because they can't be replaced,' the friend added.
O'Neal did not elaborate on his specific mistakes during his nine-year marriage with Shaunie, who is mother to four of his six children.
O'Neal's daughter Me'Arah was a McDonald's All-American before heading to Florida
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Shaquille and Shaunie O'Neal pose with two of their sons as they watch the 3-Point Shootout
NBA player Shaquille O'Neal and wife Shaunie O'Neal at Muhammad Ali's Celebrity Fight Night XIV in Scottsdale in 2008
And Shaq does seem to enjoy spending time with his children, several of whom have followed in his footsteps into basketball.
His daughter Me'Arah, a 6-foot-3 guard, has accepted a scholarship to play at Florida after earning McDonald's All-American honors at Episcopal High School in Texas.
Meanwhile, his son Shareef previously played in the G League.
O'Neal has admitted he can't take credit for his children's success.
'I can't say I did it all by myself,' O'Neal told Yahoo! in 2022. I had two wonderful mothers who actually did most of the work.'
But when he is with his children, O'Neal says he stresses the importance of school.
'Education for my kids, for myself, is very important to me,' he said. 'I have a contract with my daughters, also. If you get into law school, you get a nice little thank you daddy package. Not with the boys, though, 'cause I don't think my boys are law school material, but all my girls are.'
He's also emphasized self-reliance.
As he recalled with EarnYourLeisure.com a year ago, O'Neal had one main message for his privileged children: 'We ain't rich. I'm rich.'