{"id":107097,"date":"2025-06-18T11:38:11","date_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:38:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/107097\/"},"modified":"2025-06-18T11:38:11","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T11:38:11","slug":"shaquille-oneal-talks-deal-with-texas-based-beverage-brand-cooper-flagg-and-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/107097\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal talks deal with Texas-based beverage brand, Cooper Flagg and more"},"content":{"rendered":"

IRVING \u2014 Shaquille O\u2019Neal <\/a>walked into an Irving-based 7-Eleven on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and sat in a bright red chair next to a refrigerator full of beverages bearing his likeness.<\/p>\n

The cartooned version of O\u2019Neal was the featured image for the newest flavor of Texas-based alcohol brand, BeatBox<\/a>, which recently teamed up with the Hall of Fame center for the \u201cblueberry lemonade\u201d version of the local adult beverage. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal is no stranger to new business opportunities. He\u2019s partnered with several popular brands, but this time he\u2019s one of the latest investors in BeatBox, founded in Texas in as an MBA project by three University of Texas students.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal, who tours the world as DJ Diesel,<\/a> said he saw a plethora of BeatBox bottles at many of the festivals where he performed and was impressed by the brand\u2019s deep passion for live music, community of super fans, and dedication to creating fun.<\/p>\n

Mavericks<\/p>\n

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BeatBox received one of the largest deals in the history of popular television show Shark Tank in 2014 when Dallas Mavericks minority shareholder Mark Cuban invested $1 million for a third of the company.<\/a> A conversation between the two household names was the starting point for O\u2019Neal\u2019s investment, which was announced in March. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal spoke with The Dallas Morning News about the origins of his partnership with BeatBox, his experience as an entrepreneur, why he chooses to live in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, the Dallas Mavericks and more.<\/p>\n

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity:<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve partnered with many brands before. What was unique about Beatbox that made you say, \u2018This is the one?\u2019<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cThey were already doing great things. I used to see them at all my festivals. Little festivals of 10,000. The big festivals was 200, 300,000 people. You see [grabs Beatbox drink] in the crowd and I finally get on the call with Mark and he said, \u2018Do you see those little Caprisun-looking things in the crowd?\u2019 I said, \u2018Yeah.\u2019 He said, it\u2019s BeatBox. They want to meet with you.\u2019 I said, \u2018OK.\u2019 I had that fruit punch. That thing was smackin\u2019. Then I had that. It\u2019s working out pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned Mark Cuban<\/a> earlier. What about that partnership do you enjoy and how do you plan to scale this business together?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cWhen it comes to the investment world, what he has done. He basically gave me a layup. He just called me and said, \u2018Hey, have you seen it? I\u2019m an investor. I want you to meet the guys.\u2019 If you follow other smart people, you should get the same results that they get. For example, listen to Warren Buffet. Whatever Mr. Buffet says and you want to make some money, do it. … Mark says he\u2019s invested in the company. I said, OK. You invested so I\u2019ll invest. Shoutout to Mark and shoutout to the people at BeatBox for letting me in. We\u2019re just doing our part. Every company I join, I look at it as basketball. We just have to do our part as teammates to help this thing grow.\u201d<\/p>\n

Building off that, what would you say has been the best piece of business advice you\u2019ve received and who did you get it from?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cI got it from all of my failures. The best one is you have to believe in the product. You have to believe in the people. Don\u2019t worry about getting rich. She\u2019ll tell you. I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m making. I have no idea on any deal that I\u2019m doing becuase I don\u2019t do it for that. I\u2019ve made a lot of NBA money, so I\u2019m good. Whenever I say I\u2019m going to do a deal with this company and we\u2019re going to sell the company in two years. That doesn\u2019t work. I just do it. I\u2019m having fun and whatever happens happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

How would you describe your flavor using a basketball analogy?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: Steph Curry. Greatest shooter ever, but when you\u2019re talking about the greatest, it\u2019s still a couple of guys in front of him. Which means I\u2019m number three inside my company, which pisses me off. But I know it\u2019s going to be hard to beat that fruit punch and that blueberry raspberry. We\u2019re number three, that\u2019s why I say Steph Curry. <\/p>\n

I thought you were going to say it was the most dominant flavor.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cNah, we\u2019re not there yet. Mark\u2019s flavor is the most dominant. Mark\u2019s flavor is Michael Jordan. Fruit punch is Kobe Bryant and then blueberry lemonade is Shaq and Steph Curry. The Black Steph Curry.\u201d<\/p>\n

You mentioned you\u2019ve been here a long time [O\u2019Neal has a home in the Dallas area]. You could live anywhere in the country. Why do you choose to live here?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cBecause it\u2019s flat. Everything looks brand new. It\u2019s open and even though I always talk about Dallas, I could still be in Dallas. Where I lived in Atlanta, once I leave Atlanta, it ain\u2019t Atlanta. When you leave here, you\u2019ve got Plano, Legacy West. You\u2019ve got Irving. Fort Worth. You got all these places that make you feel like you\u2019re still in that one place. You\u2019ve got Rockwall, where I live at. And then, Dallas real estate just looks brand new. I like riding on the roads and looking on the roads. Everything just looks brand new. Some cities I live in, you can tell this building\u2019s been here 80 years. I don\u2019t like that all the time, and you got the sun, weather and I\u2019m from Texas.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of your other businesses, Big Chicken. There\u2019s a location in Fort Worth. Are there any plans to bring any other locations to the D-FW area?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cYeah, I\u2019m working on it. That\u2019s my personal baby. I was still young. We went through some kinks, but will definitely be expanding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s talk a little basketball. It\u2019s an exciting time. You\u2019ve been asked about Cooper Flagg.<\/a> He\u2019s on his visit with the Mavericks. What stands out about his game to you?<\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cHe\u2019s a great all around player. I don\u2019t want to put too much pressure on him, but a little baby Dirk? Could be. When Dirk came in, Dirk was raw like that. He just worked on his game and trained and got on the trails and got with management and he just became a great player.\u201d<\/p>\n

What needs to happen for the Mavericks to return to championship contention?<\/a><\/p>\n

O\u2019Neal: \u201cEverybody has to be healthy and everybody has to be playing great. I know they say Kyrie may come back in February, but the key is whoever is playing his position from October, November to February, you gotta keep them in position to when he comes back, to take off. By that time Cooper should have his rhythm. AD [Anthony Davis] should be able to remain dominant. AD is [points up, points down, points up, points down] and the year [the Los Angeles Lakers] won a championship, he was [points up]. We need him to be [points up]. Not [up and down motion]. If everybody can be healthy and everybody can play at a consistent level, guys have a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

X\/Twitter: @MikeACurtis2<\/a><\/p>\n

Photos: Shaquille O’Neal meets fans in Irving as he promotes a Texas-based beverage brand<\/p>\n

\"ShaquilleView Gallery<\/p>\n

Find more Mavericks coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"IRVING \u2014 Shaquille O\u2019Neal walked into an Irving-based 7-Eleven on Tuesday at 4 p.m. and sat in a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3793],"tags":[7,225,686,149,4057,166,6,12,11754,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-107097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas-mavericks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-cooper-flagg","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-dallas-mavericks","12":"tag-dallasmavericks","13":"tag-mavericks","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-nba-draft","16":"tag-qa","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114704174582469430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}