“It’s personal,” Shaquille O’Neal said when talking about his fast-casual restaurant Big Chicken, which launched in 2018. Indeed there has been a personal touch around many of the food items in his restaurant with nods to his friend and his NBA on TNT colleague Charles Barkley. But the Mayor of Big Chicken Town, Josh Halpern relayed a previously unknown backstory to O’Neal’s food business going back to the NBA star’s childhood.

After learning the ropes of franchising from other businesses, built his own empire by putting his personality into it. At the heart of it, Big Chicken is all about Shaq’s love for the humble chicken sandwich and the ’70s and ’80s.

On Monday, August 5, the Emerging Franchise Brands channel turned the spotlight on Big Chicken Shaq and its CEO, Josh Halpern  Halpern was asked what prompted Shaq to launch his own fast-casual restaurant instead of signing as an endorser for an established brand. The reason is his mom.

Halpern said that in 2017 Shaq told his agent why they hadn’t done anything in the food business given “how important fried chicken” is to the former NBA star. Halpern explained that O’Neal grew up in a military family and his mother and stepfather stretched their limited resources among young Shaq and his three siblings. They never went without a good meal on the table though, courtesy of Shaq’s mother Lucille O’Neal.

“Mama Lucille would go and buy whole chickens at the beginning of the month because the commissary would discount them. And one night would be the breast, the next night the thighs, the next night the drums, and she’d whip up a couple sides and they’d sit around the table and they’d eat her fried chicken or her barbecue chicken and the sides that she made and they’d laugh as a family and play as a family etc,” said Halpern.

He added that these family meals formed a significant part of Shaq’s memories which are reflected in the Big Chicken idea and menu. “For Shaquille that was his childhood.” Shaq received big offers from fast food companies, especially when he made ‘Barbecue Chicken Alert’ a buzzword once he began dominating the court in the ’90s. But his mom’s hard work and memory trumped the big payday.

Halpern mentioned, “So when all the chicken companies called and said, ‘hey, man you’re on air, doing barbecue chicken alert, come be our spokesperson,’ Shaquille’s like, ‘that would sort of be cheating on Mama Lucille, can’t do it, got to build my own’, and Big Chicken was born.”

Thus in 2018, Diesel launched his first Big Chicken outlet in Las Vegas with the help of  JRS Hospitality, a Las Vegas-based ownership group. Since then the franchise has grown with outlets in 18 locations across the United States. Big Chicken brings together O’Neal’s home-cooked childhood delicacies with modern-day trending flavors. Not only this, but each menu item carries a story behind it related to Shaq’s life, offering an insight into his personality. This is something the 4x NBA Champion mentioned in an interview in 2022.

Talking to the Franchise Times, O’Neal revealed, “It’s personal. I wanted them all to have names and identities, stories behind the sandwiches.” At Big Chicken, you can order a spicy Nashville hot chicken sandwich named Uncle Jerome, after O’Neal’s friend and longtime bodyguard, Jerome Crawford. Or as an NBA fan, you might want to try out the Charles Barkley, named after O’Neal’s banter partner on TNT. The sandwich comes with mac and cheese, fried onions, and roasted garlic barbecue aioli. Shaq called it “a sloppy sandwich for a sloppy guy.” 

There are other chicken sandwiches you can taste which include, the Big Aristotle, Shaq Fu, Shaq Daddy, the Big Cactus, and the Big Shamrock, all based on the nicknames of O’Neal.

In the early days, there was a lot of back and forth regarding the preparation of many food items between the NBA superstar and Matthew Silverman, chef and managing partner of JRS Hospitality. But over time the two reached a comprise creating an approachable menu for customers.

“Shaquille’s palate and what he likes is really what our consumer likes. He doesn’t have, and not in a negative way, a really sophisticated palate,” Silverman said in 2022. With his business acumen and star power Big Chicken Shaq screams Big Aristotle. But it’s actually an O’Neal family business at its core led by Mama Lucille.

Call it Big Chicken Lucille

O’Neal and his associates initially started Big Chicken with three locations in Las Vegas in 2018. The professional chefs took Lucille’s old recipes to recreate them for a fast-casual dining concept. From the interiors to the dishes, there’s a Shaq marker everywhere, including the Diesel Shake and Shaq Attack. But the highlight would be the cheez-it crusted Lucille’s Mac and Cheese, which also features as a layer in some of the sandwiches.

Halpern was brought along as CEO in 2021 to turn it into a franchise business. Under his leadership, 300+ locations are in development and many have enjoyed spectacular 2024 openings. Most recently, Lubbock, Texas got its very own Big Chicken store on Monday.

Lucille has meanwhile dropped by other Texas and Vegas locations to ensure her recipes are getting due justice. Her eldest granddaughter, Taahirah has been getting involved in the marketing end too. It does prove that Big Chicken is more Lucille O’Neal’s legacy than the famous NBA legend whose name is on it.

Stay tuned for more such updates. Join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.