Jason Harris
Former NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal has revealed how an old woman cursed him out which led to him walking away from a massive $40 million deal with Reebok.
According to the New York Post, Shaq recently appeared on the Full Send podcast, wherein he decided to share what he considers as his “best” business story.
The four-time NBA champion explained how he was approached and confronted by a foul-mouthed woman over his pending Reebok deal.
O’Neal said, “I’m leaving the arena one day, and this lady, she’s ripping me a new a – ‘You motherf***ers, charging these babies all this money for the shoes.'”
“So I had like, $2000 in my pocket, and I was like, ‘Ma’am, I don’t make the prices, here you go’ – and she smacked the money out of my hand.”
O’Neal then explained that the woman responded by angrily saying: “Why don’t you motherf***ers make a shoe that’s affordable?”
Somehow, this abrupt interaction with the woman made him question his decisions in life.
“I was like, ‘You know what, she’s right.’ So that day, I cut ties with Reebok and started my own brand,” he quipped. “I said, ‘Keep the money. This ain’t right. I’ll still wear the shoes I wear during the season, but I’ll be looking to do my own thing.’ So, I started the Shaq brand.”
O’Neal further said: “I went to my favourite store, Walmart, and we did a deal. I was in all stores and my price point for the shoes was $29-$19 and since then we sold over 400 million pairs… It’s not kids that don’t want to wear $20 shoes, they don’t want to wear shoes that look like they cost $20.”
Editorial credit: Ron Adar / Shutterstock.com
Jason Harris
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