{"id":820363,"date":"2026-08-25T16:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/820363\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T16:30:30","slug":"shaquille-oneal-on-dunkman-lakers-sale-kobe-bryant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/820363\/","title":{"rendered":"Shaquille O’Neal on ‘Dunkman,’ Lakers Sale, Kobe Bryant"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tShaquille O\u2019Neal<\/a> loves solving problems.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe basketball icon and four-time NBA champion, 54, has two master\u2019s degrees, a doctorate, served as a sheriff\u2019s deputy and honorary U.S. Marshal, and once played for Doc Rivers.<\/p>\n

\n\tBack in 2016, the basketball icon needed to install a home security system only to have a company quote him $60,000 to $80,000. During one of his routine trips to Best Buy \u2014 his favorite store \u2014 he spotted the Ring Doorbell Camera for sale at a fraction of the price and decided to give it a whirl. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI went to China the next week and thought, \u2018Damn, this thing works in China!\u2019\u201d O\u2019Neal recalls to Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe began hounding Colin Smeeton, his longtime manager and business partner, about meeting the owner of Ring and investing in the company. The following January, O\u2019Neal made a beeline for Ring founder Jamie Siminoff at CES, the annual tech trade show in Las Vegas, telling him, \u201cI\u2019d love to find a way to partner with you but I don\u2019t want to just be a pitchman; I want to have equity in the company.\u201d So, O\u2019Neal was granted what Smeeton calls \u201ca sizable equity stake in the company\u201d that made him millions when it sold to Amazon for $1.15 billion a year later.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHe\u2019s constantly challenging himself and always looking for what the new opportunity is,\u201d Smeeton says.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Neal sensed a similar opportunity with the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tA scene from \u201cDunkman.\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTNT<\/p>\n

\n\tIt had been close to a decade since the annual All-Star Weekend competition was any good (see: Zach LaVine vs. Aaron Gordon, 2016), and a quarter-century removed from the last bona fide NBA superstar participating in it (Vince Carter, 2000). The days of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant<\/a> soaring through the air were long gone.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAll the best dunkers in the NBA were not showing up, and when I was growing up, the best dunkers were in the NBA,\u201d explains O\u2019Neal. \u201cI would definitely up the prize money. I\u2019d put a Ferrari in the middle of the floor for first place and a Rolls-Royce for second place.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tHe continues, \u201cThe last great dunk contest we had was Zach LaVine and Aaron Gordon\u2026 But then I would scroll through the internet and see these kids do dunks and look at their big [social media] followings, so me and my partners were like, \u2018Let\u2019s create a dunk league to put these guys together.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe result is \u201cDunkman,\u201d a live televised competition where 24 of the world\u2019s best dunkers spin and slam their way to a $500,000 grand prize, the largest in the history of competitive dunking (and $125,000 for second place). Airing across TNT and HBO Max, and presented by Authentic Studios and TNT Sports, \u201cDunkman\u201d has proven to be a social media sensation, attracting over 854 million social views across platforms during its group stages. The final will air the night of Aug. 25.<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd yes, there may not be NBA superstars jamming it home on \u201cDunkman\u201d but you do have the unique privilege of seeing a 5-foot-9 furniture salesman from Utah with a nearly 50-inch vertical leap (Hyrum \u201cHyt Check\u201d Fechser) dunk over several men on a couch and send O\u2019Neal and his cast of commentators \u2014 Vince Carter, Draymond Green, Dwight Howard and TNT\u2019s Adam Lefkoe \u2014 into a frenzy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Smeeton, the president of Authentic Studios, Season 2 of \u201cDunkman\u201d will see O\u2019Neal scouting the world to find new talent for the competition and may even incorporate undercards, \u00e0 la UFC, like a 15-and-under junior dunk contest with 9-foot rims and a women\u2019s dunking division.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWe\u2019ve had athletes from all over the world DMing Shaquille and the league saying, \u2018I want to be in for Season 2,\u2019 so we\u2019re just scratching the surface,\u201d Smeeton says.<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Neal adds, \u201cWe\u2019re in talks with a lot of international countries like Poland, China and others. We\u2019re getting calls every day. We\u2019re going to keep it going and do small events, medium events and big events, and our ultimate goal is to partner up with the NBA and take over the Dunk Contest.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAs far as his own favorite dunks, O\u2019Neal points to his notorious dunk<\/a> over the Knicks\u2019 Chris Dudley in 1999, where he discarded him after \u2014 \u201cI saw on the internet that that was called \u2018The Most Disrespectful Dunk in History,\u2019 and I\u2019ll take it,\u201d he jokes \u2014 and his absolute favorite: the Kobe alley-oop to close out the Trailblazers in Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMy favorite is the Kobe lob-dunk in 2000,\u201d offers O\u2019Neal. \u201cWe were up 3-1 in that series and [the Trailblazers] came back to bring it to Game 7, and the fuckin\u2019 worst thing happened where I wasn\u2019t really playing great until late, they got up 15, and I was like, \u2018Shit, here we go again.\u2019 And then Phil Jackson was like, \u2018Alright, see you guys next summer,\u2019 and we got upset and went on a legendary comeback. I would always tell Kobe, \u2018When you get to the lane instead of doing all that double-pump-fake stuff just throw it up and I\u2019ll be there.\u2019 And he threw it up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tO\u2019Neal has been partnered with Authentic Studios since December 2015, and founded his production company, Jersey Legends, in 2020. It\u2019s proved a fruitful partnership for O\u2019Neal, resulting in TV productions like the acclaimed \u201cAllen Iv3rson\u201d docuseries<\/a> for Prime, the Netflix reality show \u201cPower Moves With Shaquille O\u2019Neal,\u201d the \u201cDunkman\u201d league on TNT and another ABC\/ESPN series shooting this fall, along with a number of scripted shows in development.<\/p>\n

\n\tThere was even a recent (fake) viral report that O\u2019Neal had purchased the Los Angeles Lakers<\/a>, even though the Buss family actually sold the NBA team to Bob Iger and Joshua Kushner for $12.5 billion<\/a>. It\u2019s proven quite the lucrative investment for the Buss family, whose father, Dr. Jerry Buss, bought the Lakers in 1979 for $67.5 million in a deal that also included the Los Angeles Kings and the Forum. Since 1980, the Lakers have won the most NBA championships in the league with 11.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI would love to own an NBA team and I have nothing but love and admiration for the Buss family,\u201d O\u2019Neal says of the deal. \u201cOne thing I learned from the Buss family is business, and I think if they did sell it would be a great business move because I know how much [Dr. Jerry Buss] bought the Lakers for. I know he\u2019s not with us anymore, but I know he took pride in making it a family business and the family has been there through my tenure, Kobe\u2019s tenure and LeBron\u2019s tenure. If they did sell it for that much, then I think it was a great business move.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThere is, of course, the matter of Jeanie Buss, the Lakers\u2019 minority owner and team governor who, in a bit of \u201cSuccession\u201d-like drama, has contested her siblings\u2019 sale<\/a> to Iger and Kushner.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhen I mention this to O\u2019Neal, he pauses. \u201cI never paid attention to that. There was always stuff going around, but I never got involved,\u201d he remarks, before adding: \u201cActually, we should do a documentary on that!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shaquille O\u2019Neal loves solving problems. The basketball icon and four-time NBA champion, 54, has two master\u2019s degrees, a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":820364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[7,1536,4034,1698,300,4044,251,150,4033,4043,6,1302],"class_list":["post-820363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-basketball","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-nba","tag-shaquille-oneal"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/117157103153735243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820363","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=820363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/820363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/820364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=820363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=820363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=820363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}