Shaquille O’Neal is a man of many talents, but you already knew that. The dude is always busy.
For decades, we saw Shaq dunking on people at historic rates throughout his Hall of Fame NBA career. Now we mostly see him in segments on TNT’s Inside the NBA show, widely regarded as the best sports show on television.
And of course, if you wait long enough you’ll see him in a commercial for one of the many brands he’s working with — and, trust me, there are a lot.
When he’s not doing that, he’s extending helping hands out into the community like he’s currently doing with Icy Hot.
Shaq partnered with Icy Hot — another one of the brands he works with — to build a new “Comebaq Court” at the Challengers Boys & Girls Club in Los Angeles. The latest court is part of a nationwide effort between Shaq and Icy Hot to refurbish basketball courts in underserved communities across the country.
Along with LA so far, the partnership has rebuilt courts in Miami, Newark, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Shaq took a bit of time to chat with For The Win about the Comebaq Court initiative amongst other questions including his upcoming work as the president of Reebok basketball as well as his latest hip-hop feature on a track with Rick Ross, Meek Mill and Damian Lillard. Yes, it gets a little spicy.
RELATED: A look back between the back-and-forth between Damian Lillard and Shaq.
You can read the interview in full below.
Editor’s Note: This Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity
You're doing really cool stuff with Icy Hot today. You’ve got the Comebaq Court popping. Tell me a little bit more about about what you guys are doing.
Well, this is my fifth Comebaq court. I’ve done Vegas, Newark, Atlanta. And a couple other cities.
My foundation, the Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, the Icy Hot Foundation, we just wanted to affect children. With me being a basketball player, I see a lot of courts not really in good shape. So in areas we grew up in I just want to go and fix up the court. People call it giving back, I call it doing what I was told to do.
I always hear really cool stories about you doing stuff like that for people. I kind of wonder where it comes from.
It comes from my mother, Dr. Lucille O’Neal. A lot of people don’t understand this. My mother is an avid TV watcher. As her son, I want to make her proud … I’m always just doing things to make her smile.
My favorite place to go to is Best Buy. When I see a mother in there with her kid price gauging, I just go back — you know what? That was me and my momma. Looking at stuff she couldn’t afford but her trying to take care of me. We don’t go to the regular line, we go to the layaway line. So, I just, you know, I’ll take care of it. A lot of that stuff be expensive.
You’ve got so many different brand deals like with what you’re doing with Icy Hot right here. What is it for you that makes a deal attractive?
I like to consider myself an old school businessman. I can’t take your money if I’m not really feeling your product. With Icy Hot, I was playing a Lakers game and the guy put the Icy Hot on my thighs and it rose up to “the boys.” So I know it works.
Then they came and said Icy Hot wants to do a deal. I said “We don’t even have to meet with them. Hell yeah, let’s do the deal.” True story.
Editor’s note: Here’s Shaq telling this story to Meredith Vieria back in 2014
I also wanted to talk with you about Reebok. What was it about Reebok and the opportunity to come back and play this role for the brand that was so attractive to you?
I can remember when Allen [Iverson] and I were playing. We were number two. It wasn’t number one, it wasn’t number three. It was a hard number two. And then in 2006 Adidas purchased Reebok and they took all their contracts. We had a 10 percent hold on the footwear market.
Adidas bought that, absolved all our deals and turned us into a fitness brand … Now we want to get back into basketball. So it’s going to be my job to reinvent, reintroduce, sign exciting players and come out with great looking footwear.
@specialdelivery_ftw Shaq has a WHOLE LOT planned for Reebok in the future. And, yes, that includes some of his old retros, too 👀 What do you think Shaq and AI should come up with for Reebok? Let us know in the comments! #reebok #shaq #iverson #nba
I’m curious, are there plans for retro stuff that you’re going to be doing?
Oh, I know. I know. Just know that we’re coming correct. Definitely retro. When I was having a conversation with Reebok, they were like “we’ve got to do new stuff.” And I’m like “Jordan don’t do new stuff.” Jordan still sells old stuff.
And guess what? You’ve got two over here. Might not be one, but I know I ain’t three. I know I ain’t four. You’ve got Shaq and AI over here. So we’re going to come with that, then we’re going to come with some new designs.
You all brought on Angel Reese. She’s a star in her own right. How do you envision that partnership moving forward?
I’m going to be looking to get more exciting players. I’m going to be looking to make a big signing here. We also did the Shakur Stevenson deal. So I’m just going to be looking to get a lot of influencers, get a lot of great players. But, again, it’s all about that fashion. We’ve got to come correct.
I want to switch gears a bit. You were on a track with Meek Mill, Rick Ross, Dame Lillard on the Kobe & Shaq track. How did that come to be?
Rick’s a good friend of mine. We talk. He sent it to me and I have a studio. I jacked the beat. I was just in there messing around. Even though I’m Shaq, I still like to dream. So I was like “man, if I could be on the track I would do this.”
I was in the studio by myself all night when I laid it. I sent it back to him and he said “yo, man, can I keep that?” I was just messing around. I wasn’t trying to jump on the track. But I sent it back to him. He said “Yo, man, I like that.” And I guess he sent it to Dame and then Dame jumped on.
What’d you think about that? Because I know you and Dame had that thing a few years ago. A lot of people called that beef but I didn’t really see it as beef. I saw it as hip-hop.
No, it’s not beef. It’s competition … Listen, I like Dame. He’s a great player. But competition wise, anything I do you can’t say you’re better than me. Now you’re challenging me … We’re cool. I don’t have beef. But I love competition.
Let’s be honest. It’s a useless title. “Oh, he’s the best athlete rapper.” You really think I care? I don’t. But don’t challenge me. I’ve had this useless title since 1992 but I’m going to keep it. It doesn’t go beyond that. It’s all marketing. It’s good for him. It’s good for me. But when people think it’s personal, I’ve got way too much [expletive] to be doing to try to be a rapper. Trust me.
I know you’ve got the EDM popping right now. I know you’re doing your DJ Deisel thing. But is it possible for us to get a 2023 or 2024 Shaq hip-hop album.
Shaq: No. But I’ve got 100 freestyles ready to go. Every time somebody says somebody is better or somebody is close, I’ve got some heat for them. Again, for me, it’s fun. I like reading the comments. Oh, he’s this. Oh, he’s that. So I’ve got a lot of unauthorized freestyles I’m just waiting to let go.
FTW: Shaq. We need the tapes, Shaq. You’ve got to drop the tapes.
Shaq: Haha. Thank you.
