DJ Diesel is not doing it like the others. Most NBA players tap into their entrepreneurial side for post-NBA careers. Shaquille O’Neal did too. But he’s also got a taste for entertaining massive crowds and he couldn’t let go of that when he retired in 2011. That led this multi-platinum-selling athlete rapper to take a non-traditional retirement path straight into trap. So now we have Shaq in his massive DIESEL necklaces playing metal-heavy EDM mixes at the biggest festivals. And it all came from a desperate feeling of rediscovering himself outside of basketball.

He exclusively told People Magazine that his career plans were thrown for a loop. He retired two years earlier than he wanted and was left hopeless. There was a lot going on in 2011. He had finalized his divorce with Shaunie, who had moved back to California with their five kids. He has previously described in his memoir and on The Big Podcast that living alone in Florida was making him depressed and lonely. What he also missed is being in an arena with thousands of fans.

There was a fix for that, and it was deejaying. “I started DJing because it gives me the same adrenaline boost that a championship game would give me,” he said. For a natural entertainer, investing in businesses and starring in commercials wasn’t enough. He had immediately taken up TNT’s offer to join Inside the NBA within months of retirement, but he missed playing to the gallery.

“I was lost because I had planned to retire two years after I retired. So I wasn’t really prepared.” He’s not one of those stories of pro athletes going broke after retirement. Financially and from a business standpoint, O’Neal was secure. But as he tells the mag, he had been an athlete since he was 14. Like many before and after him, it was a struggle to leave the sport, competition, and arena behind.

O’Neal was addicted to what he described as the “step into the arena feeling of the game.” He lost it after retiring from basketball but rediscovered it playing to crowds of 5000 to 15,000 again.

Shaquille O’Neal’s second act was pulling a 180

Shaquille O’Neal has mentioned before that he used to spin the turntables as a teen. He saved up his allowance to buy a modest $200 console from a pawnshop. Deejaying in high school, college, and block parties was a way to earn some extra cash for him. When he arrived in the NBA in 1992, Jive Records also offered a $10 million record contract. So he traded the console for a mic and Shaq Diesel was born.

Most did think he’d go back to rap or acting after retiring. But Shaq was unpredictable, as always. He went to an EDM concert and reconnected with his old passion. So the 7-foot giant returned to bass in his 40s with new-school energy and old-school vibes.

He humbly brags he’s not one of the top-rated DJs like his old friend Steve Aoki. However, Shaq has headlined Tomorrowland, Lost Lands, Beyond Wonderland, Electric Castle, Lollapalooza, and more international festivals. He recently debuted the first father-son duo of EDM, O’Neal Boyz, with his son, Myles, and wrapped the Summer of Bass tour. His Super Bowl carnival-themed festival, Shaq’s Fun House, also brings his favorite DJs along with other artists to perform. But that’s not all.

This traphead is keen on showcasing underrated bass talent. So he launched his own EDM festival, Bass All-Stars, in 2023. He held an all-female edition of it in early 2024 and is set to host the third incarnation of it this November, back in Fort Worth’s Panther Island. From playing basketball in front of at least 20,000 fans as a Laker, Shaq now performs for 100,000 in Lost Lands and hosts 15,000 at Bass All-Stars. Talk about “step into the arena feeling.”