Shaquille O’Neal, With Denver Splash in the Rearview, Takes Almost 400-Mile Trip for “Surreal” Night

It’s only the first week of 2024 and Shaquille O’Neal has been unstoppable. He started the New Year in Texas, returned to TNT in Atlanta from a holiday break, then jetted off to Denver for his much-anticipated all-female edition of Bass All-Stars, and then arrived in New Mexico. He’s added the enchantment in the Land of Enchantment going by one diehard fan’s account of his Shaq encounter.

“I used to stay up till like 5AM to watch SHAQ and KOBE playing Lakers games on our old tube TV. 7K miles away from here. Never ever in my wildest dreams i would’ve even imagine this would happen one day back then. Being able to shake his hands and be in his presence was surreal moment for me last night. Life is truly a trip and i am super grateful for it #DJDiesel,” wrote Ata Bahadir, an Alburquerque-based entrepreneur.

Bahadir also has an alternate career in music and is a major NBA fan. He was recently star-struck being in Arizona’s Footprint Center at the Phoenix Suns’ New Year game. He was not the only one traveling cross-country between NBA games and music festivals.

Shaq held his EDM festival, Bass All-Stars at Mission Ballroom in Denver on January 5. He coasted off to New Mexico where he attended the game between the Lobos and the Wyoming Cowboys in The Pit on Saturday night. He was supporting his former Lakers teammate, Michael Cooper, a Lobos alum, as his college jersey was retired. Shaq too flaunted his own ‘Shaq Diesel 23’ Lobos jersey.

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He then switched to DJ Diesel mode to perform at the Revel Entertainment Center soon after. Bahadir had the opportunity to meet him as Shaq headlined SOMOS in Albuquerque.

DJ Diesel’s big plans

O’Neal admitted he’s not one of the “top tier” DJs in the business. That meant for every event he performed at, he was absorbing a loss, as the financial compensation was less than how much he spent to get to the venue. Regardless, he enjoys getting dubstep maniacs pumped with his sets and he’s going to keep at his EDM career for that reason.

He has big goals for his DJ career. He launched his music festival, Bass All-Stars, in September 2023. It was originally meant to launch in Denver at Mission Ballroom, but due to undisclosed reasons, he moved it to Fort Worth, Texas, where he performed to a 15,000-strong crowd.

He finally fulfilled his wish to have a festival of female DJs at the original venue of Bass All-Stars. Shaq even recruited So&So right off Twitter to perform alongside Aimmia and Layz at Mission Ballroom. Next on his list, he hopes to perform in Nevada’s The Sphere one day. He’s going to hype crowds wherever he goes until then.

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