In a 2015 interview with journalist Graham Basinger, Shaquille O'Neal peeled back the curtain on a side of his story you don't see in highlight reels. Not the dunks. Not the trophies. The moment he found out he was $80,000 in the hole—before he'd even played a single NBA game.
"I spend it in one day," he said, referring to the $1 million endorsement deal he landed before the draft. The spending spree started with a black Mercedes—$150,000, no questions asked. "No negotiations," he said. "Guy could have told me $200,000 and I would've bought it."
