Shaquille O’Neal “Was Always Harassing” American Company Into Buying Reebok, Reveals CEO

CEO of Reebok, Todd Krinsky, lived through 30 years of the company’s history. This means he’s seen the company sign and lose Shaquille O’Neal, rise through the Allen Iverson era, decline under Adidas, and be placed in charge of Reebok’s revival. That also left him in a convenient position to be harangued by Shaq. Even after the Shaq Attaq namesake left in 1998, he maintained communication with Krinsky. Over recent years, the subject of their text exchanges had a common theme. In the grand scheme of things, it was a setup to bring Shaq back to Reebok through the company’s old loyalist.

“Is Adidas selling yet?” O’Neal always asked Krinsky, who wasn’t CEO at that point. Shaq’s persistence was directed to Jamie Salter too, the CEO of Authentic Brand Groups, in which the NBA star is a shareholder. “He was always harassing Jamie,” Krinsky told the NY Times.

Shaq’s doggedness paid off. He finally convinced Salter to acquire Reebok from Adidas under the Authentic umbrella in 2021 for $2.5 billion. In 2022, its very own loyalist, Todd Krinsky, was appointed as Reebok’s CEO. At that time, the brand couldn’t wait for it to sign NBA players. They needed to make an impact.

So instead of O’Neal haranguing him, he contacted O’Neal this time. He wanted to see how deeply he wanted to be involved in the Reebok Renaissance. Shaq got back to him with an entire business pitch. “I want to be president,” was the summary of the pitch. O’Neal wanted Krinsky to put him in charge of the basketball operations. Krinsky loved the idea and as of October 2023, Shaq’s business card said, president of basketball operations at Reebok.

In that same announcement, Allen Iverson was announced as VP. There was a certain strategy to that too. “He can help me get to the smaller people,” O’Neal said. “If I’m a guard and I get a call from Shaq? Meh. But if I get a call from A.I., that’s a different story.”

O’Neal’s plans to revive Reebok’s presence in the basketball world are an internal secret. But it’s in the works for a full relaunch. Knowing Shaq, it won’t be half-baked.

Shaquille O’Neal comes full circle

O’Neal was Reebok’s first foray into basketball. As their signature athlete, he kept Reebok at the top, at par with Nike and its star, Michael Jordan. However, Shaq walked away from the $40 million contract extension in 1998 to launch an affordable sneaker brand under Walmart. It was not a bitter divorce the way Kobe Bryant left Adidas. Reebok was always special to Shaq as his ex-agent, Leonard Armato, explained in detail to EssentiallySports.

In 2015, the now-retired O’Neal became the second largest shareholder at Authentic and had Salter’s ear. He had a big role in pushing Salter to acquire brands like JCPenney. He initially pushed Salter to get into the footwear business and later to acquire Reebok. At the 2024 ‘Shoe Oscars,’ Salter credited Shaq for the entire Reebok deal.

As Krinsky said, it’s not a publicity stunt. O’Neal visited the HQ in Boston, had a say in signing Angel Reese, initiated retro-release, and is working with designers for the relaunch. We only need to wait and see what grand plans Shaq has in store for Reebok.