Shaquille O’Neal has an uncanny obsession with cars. Since his LSU days, O’Neal has always been particular about his rides, often spacing them to the extreme. Once he made it to the NBA, his obsession with buying cars grew out of control. Shaq even recalled buying three luxury cars on the same day, when he played for the Los Angeles Lakers. On his way back from practice one day, the 7’1″ dropped by his local Bentley dealership to look at their cars. In his 2011 book, ‘Shaq Uncut’, O’Neal revealed that the showroom salesman was rude to him, as the “old white man,” even questioned Shaq if he had the money to afford one of their cars.
While the salesmen’s comments infuriated the big fella, the presence of another celebrity athlete caused him to spend over half a million dollars on Bentley cars. Recalling the incident in his 2011 book, O’Neal added,
“While I’m standing there, I hear this kind of squeaky voice that sounds familiar, and there he is—Mike Tyson, the boxer. He’s looking at Bentley’s, too. The next thing I know, Tyson has picked out two. He’s buying two of these cars, so you know what I’ve got to do. I’ve got to buy three!.”
O’Neal spent $600,000 on cars that day, a decision he admittedly regrets. In his book, he even recalled being unable to “fit” in the ‘English automobile’, and had to drop additional cash to get the seats pushed back on them. While Shaq drove his Bentleys around town, he quickly grew bored of the cars as he attempted to flash sell his “luxury” purchases. He had to wait over a year before he could dispose of his three cars, racking up severe losses from his deal. Interestingly, this was not the first time he got into this situation.
Shaquille O’Neal spent a fortune to prove a car salesman wrong once before
This wasn’t the first time Shaq ended up spending a fortune in an attempt to prove a point. While speaking to ‘REVOLT’, during an interview last year, O’Neal explained how he once spent over a million dollars in a Roycle Royce dealership. During the interview, the former Laker explained that he had no intentions of breaking the ban but certain remarks from the showroom salesman led him down an ego purchase,
“I don’t wanna spend $400,000 for a car,” O’Neal said. “So I’m like, ‘Hey man how much is this? Nah. How much is this one?’ So finally the old guy says, ‘Yo man, you asking about all these cars, can you afford them?”
The salesman didn’t know Shaq, even after O’Neal signed one of the league’s most lucrative contacts. Moving forward, Shaq admitted that the salesmen’s words “pi**ed him off”, as the Big Fella ended up buying three Royce cars from the showroom, a purchase he recalls making in “spite”. The decision would come back to haunt O’Neal, as once again, the Big Fella ended up spending thousands on renovations and ultimately dumped all three cars for a reported loss of over a million dollars.
