{"id":742569,"date":"2026-05-24T07:24:30","date_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742569\/"},"modified":"2026-05-24T07:24:30","modified_gmt":"2026-05-24T07:24:30","slug":"i-was-real-embarrassed-shaquille-oneal-admitted-he-went-80000-into-debt-before-playing-an-nba-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/742569\/","title":{"rendered":"“I was real embarrassed” – Shaquille O’Neal admitted he went $80,000 into debt before playing an NBA game"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shaquille O’Neal<\/a>\u00a0is today one of the best businessmen and most financially responsible legends to play in the NBA. That was not the case early in his professional basketball journey.<\/p>\n

The four-time NBA champion recalled the time he went overboard with his spending, finding himself $80,000 in the red even before he played a single game in the NBA.<\/p>\n

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In an interview with journalist Graham Besinger back in 2015, Shaq shared that the money he received from a $1-million shoe company endorsement deal before the draft came and went, as he splurged on a lot of things.<\/p>\n

Among those he spent the money on were cars for him and his parents, including a black Mercedes worth $150,000. He also bought suits, jewelry and electronics, among which was a sound system with a beeper-connected alarm.<\/p>\n

“I spent it in one day. A couple of days later, I got a call from the bank. I was $80,000 in the hole. And I was real embarrassed,”\u00a0O’Neal\u00a0recalled<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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A wake-up call<\/p>\n

That episode, however, proved to be a wake-up call for the\u00a0Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>\u00a0legend in better handling his finances so as not to end up like many athletes at that time, who finished their careers with less money, or worse, broke.<\/p>\n

The bank manager who called him after his spending spree, who turned out to be a family friend, set him on the path to financial literacy and wealth management.<\/p>\n

“The father of someone I went to school with, Mr. Johnson \u2014 he called me into the office and says, ‘Shaq, I want to have a conversation with you about your money.’\u00a0I was like, ‘Yeah. What’s up?’\u00a0He said, ‘You know, 50, 60% of all professional athletes when they’re done, they have nothing, and I don’t want you to,'”\u00a0O’Neal\u00a0shared<\/a>\u00a0in an interview.<\/p>\n

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“He said, ‘Shaq, I want you to read this book.’\u00a0He said, ‘I know you left school early, but you’re about to come into a lot of money. This can help you.’\u00a0It’s the Dummies’ Guide to Starting Your Own Business. So I get it, and I read it, and I said: “Let me try it,”\u00a0he added.<\/p>\n

Another person who helped him have better money management skills is financial advisor Lester Knispel, whom he fondly refers to as “one little small beautiful Jewish man.”<\/p>\n

He credited Knispel for further teaching him the ropes towards having a better financial acumen, including understanding how taxes work, studying investments and doing business.<\/p>\n

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Related: “Cocaine was the perfect L.A. drug” – Jeanie Buss opened up about wild cocaine culture during the Lakers’ Showtime era<\/a><\/p>\n

Growing his wealth<\/p>\n

Shaq played 19 seasons in the NBA, earning roughly $292 million in salary in stops in Orlando<\/a>, Los Angeles<\/a>, Miami<\/a>, Phoenix, Cleveland<\/a> and Boston<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But he currently has an estimated net worth of $500 million, bolstered by his many corporate endorsements and broadcast contracts, including for the Emmy Award-winning show “Inside the NBA.”<\/p>\n

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He is also one of the most successful former athletes-turned-entrepreneurs, with a business portfolio spanning food, real estate and retail.<\/p>\n

“[Do your] research and surround yourself with the right people. You have to use your resources and ask for help when you need it. You can achieve great things with the proper support system,”\u00a0O’Neal\u00a0advised<\/a>\u00a0those who want to go into business.<\/p>\n

From an initial misstep in handling his money to now as a savvy businessman, O’Neal has surely come a long way. He is further proof that it is not how one makes mistakes but how one corrects them that defines a person.<\/p>\n

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Related: “I’ve always wished I could stroke it like that” – Shaquille O’Neal revealed the NBA player he wished he could switch bodies with<\/a><\/p>\n

This story was originally published by Basketball Network<\/a> on May 23, 2026, where it first appeared in the Off The Court<\/a> section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal\u00a0is today one of the best businessmen and most financially responsible legends to play in the NBA.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":742570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,45,305,91609,251,150,295,6,47,1979,65639,30374],"class_list":["post-742569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-basketball","tag-boston","tag-cleveland","tag-graham-besinger","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-miami","tag-nba","tag-orlando","tag-professional-basketball","tag-shaquille-o39neal","tag-spending-spree"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116628361320732945","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742569","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=742569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/742569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/742570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=742569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=742569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=742569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}