What is Shaquille O’Neal’s solution to life’s dilemmas? Throw money at it. Another example of this was revealed when Charles Barkley appeared on Netflix’s My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. During the conversation, they watched a footage of Letterman hanging out with Inside the NBA crew backstage from March this year, when Shaq admitted to his addiction.

After a long night of watching and analyzing basketball games on Inside the NBA, it’s only natural for the TNT crew to wind down over drinks. However, Shaq couldn’t participate because of his choice to not drink. That led him to drop some serious cash and develop a new addiction.

In the footage, as Shaq walks in Chuck tells Letterman, “Some of the crew, we all go out and have a drink ’cause you’re kind of wired after the show. There’s a dive bar up the street we go to, and Shaq doesn’t drink.” Barkley had the opportunity to break out his best Shaq imitation for this narrative. “He’s like, ‘You guys are a******s. I got nothin’ to do after the show.'”

Barkley revealed after two weeks of FOMO, Shaq strut into Studio J, declaring, “I solved my problem. I bought a hookah bar.” This caught Letterman by surprise and Barkley added, “That lets you know he got too much money.”

It was in 2o22, that the 4-time NBA Champion bought the hookah bar so that he has something to do after the show, while the rest of the cast were out having a drink. Shaq didn’t exactly quit drinking but didn’t join others because of his mother’s struggles with alcoholism. She sobered and turned her life around and Shaq refrained from drinking in public.

Later in the conversation, Letterman inquired Shaq about his business and when he asked him, “So you are addicted?”, ‘Big Diesel’ simply replied, “Yes.” Shaq’s admission that he “can stop anytime,” brought out laughs and taunts from Barkley and Kenny Smith, but he was unfazed. He even offered Letterman a free pass at the ‘Shaq Special’ at his bar any time he wanted.

Apart from solving his problem of what to do after the show, the hookah bar also shows that Shaq is a shrewd businessman. In the Inside the NBA backstage footage, he did tell Letterman that the bar did a “brisk business.” Shaq is no stranger to such investments having owned  40 24-Hour Fitness gyms, 155 Five Guys restaurants and nine Papa John’s pizza places over the years.

Shaq’s addiction to hookah is also nothing new though. For the Inside Guys, they have known it long enough to make it a recurring joke. If Shaq ever misses a day at TNT, it doesn’t take long for Chuck and Kenny to joke he’s at his hookah bar.

In fact, Kenny Smith once revealed that during his early days on the show, Shaq used to have a hookah lounge in the studio.

When Shaq’s habits annoyed Smith and co.

Two years ago, on All the Smoke podcast, Kenny Smith opened up on Shaq’s early TNT days. He mentioned how Shaq had to fit in with the already established crew and there were some hiccups along the way.

He brought up Shaq’s hookah habits and detailed, “He created a hookah lounge in the studio and they let him do this. He was like, ‘I have to have my hookah.’ So he has a hookah lounge outside, and they put a TV outside the studio.”

Smith then mentioned that the rest of the cast were not happy with the treatment he got and that he used to come to work with an entourage, which didn’t go down well either. Well, after those early road bumps, the cast gelled together to give fans some of the most entertaining segments on TV.

While the future of Inside the NBA is up in the air, we are likely to get more such insider stories from the beloved cast in the comings years.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the Reese-Clark rivalry and more, watch this video.