NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has built a business empire with his success on the hardwood as the foundation. Shaq’s larger-than-life personality coupled with his dominance in the league made him one of the most popular athletes in the scene. This brought in a lot of endorsement opportunities for the Los Angeles Lakers legend. However, O’Neal soon understood that he can earn more if he partners with a product rather than just endorsing it. This was a high-risk high-reward strategy, but he was ready to take that risk.

It is safe to say the four-time NBA champion’s strategy worked well with most products, considering his massive net worth of $600 million. Interestingly, his mother, Lucille O’Neal, did not allow him to declare for the draft once because she thought Shaq was not good with finances. Then a major piece of advice from Magic Johnson changed his life.

Shaquille O’Neal on Magic Johnson’s invaluable advice

Shaquille O’Neal made an appearance in one of the recent episodes of The Pat McAfee Show. During the podcast, the 2000 NBA MVP answered questions about his NBA career, personal life, etc. In one instance, the host noted his astonishment about Shaq’s array of businesses and listed some of them in awe.

McAfee then said that the Big Diesel is an inspiration for a lot of people and wanted to know when O’Neal realized that he could accomplish all that. He also talked about the popular story of Shaq building his own shoe brand to provide affordable signature shoes to children in the country and asked when did business become a focus for the Big Fella.

O’Neal replied, “[When I was] 18 years old, I meet Magic Johnson and he tells me, ‘It’s OK to be famous but at some point, you want to start learning about business.’ First thing I bought was ‘Dummy’s Guide to Starting Your Own Business‘.”

Magic’s advice understandably inspired the 15-time NBA All-Star to learn more about business and it worked wonders. However, the 1993 ROY made it clear that his success in the NBA certainly helped him in the business world.

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Magic Johnson learned it the hard way

NBA legend Magic Johnson has been a successful entrepreneur and has a net worth of $620 million. The 12-time NBA All-Star learned about business from one of the best entrepreneurs, Dr. Jerry Buss, the late owner of the Lakers. However, the five-time NBA champion could have had a lot more.

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Magic’s advice to Shaquille O’Neal, could be because of his own mistakes that were caused by a lack of knowledge. When he was a rookie, Nike offered him a sneaker deal with shares. But he declined it since he was looking for money and was not very knowledgeable about shares at the time. Had he signed the deal and never sold his shares, he would have added a mindboggling $600 million to his net worth.