Shaquille O’Neal has used his Hall of Fame playing career to build a multimedia empire as a TNT analyst. The former Los Angeles Lakers big man has a vast business empire that includes everything from Big Chicken to technology and entertainment investments. His most recent assignment, however, is completely unexpected: he has been named general manager of the Sacramento State University men’s basketball team.

What started as banter between Sacramento State head coach Mike Bibby and O’Neal is now a serious role that will further add to his impressive post-retirement CV. At a recent All The Smoke event co-hosted by Matt Barnes, Dr. Luke Wood offered the backstory on how coach Bibby roped in Shaq to serve as GM for a previously non-existent role.

“Bascially, he said, ‘Hey Shaq, why don’t you be the GM?’ Shaq says no, how about I be the assistant GM, and then Mike said, ‘Well, no, you can’t be the assistant GM because we don’t have a GM’,” Dr. Wood told the audience. “So Mike got on a couple of calls with him, and then I got on a Zoom call with him, and then Mark also got on a Zoom call with him just to explain what it would mean to be involved.”

Bibby, a 14-year NBA veteran and former Sacramento Kings player, would later reveal that it took less than five seconds to get Shaq to commit. Of course, his son Shaqir O’Neal signing to play under Bibby’s tutelage at Sac State sweetened the deal for the 4x NBA champion. Nevertheless, he seems to be taking his newly acquired GM title with utmost responsibility.

“He [Shaquille O’Neal] wanted to make sure that it was something that he’d able to do at the highest level, but he’s been incredibly involved….I think people think ‘Oh, it’s like a symbolic thing’, it’s not symbolic, he’s been truly invested in Sacramento State. Everything that happens with basketball but also other parts of the campus as well…he’s trying to make it so that he elevates the campus, and elevating the campus is elevating the community, and elevating the community is improving Sacramento and if you care about Sacramento, you’re rooting for the only university in the entire region other than Sac City that has the name Sacramento in the title. So I’m all about Sac, I’m rooting for everything Sac,” Dr. Wood concluded.

Shaq’s title as GM comes with no salary and is purely voluntary. His son, Shaqir, transferred out of Florida A&M in late March to join the Sac State Hornets. University president and alumnus, Dr. Luke Wood, has been aggressive in recruitment and transformation of the institution’s athletic programs. They see the collaboration with Shaq as a major step in the right direction. Sacramento State went 7-25 under former coach Michael Czepil and will hope to improve on that in the upcoming NCAA calendar year.

Stephen Curry, Trae Young, and other athletes who went ‘back to school’

For Stephen Curry and Trae Young, ‘going back to school’ hasn’t just meant finishing a few credits – it’s meant stepping directly into the engine rooms of the programs that made them stars. The GSW veteran returned to Davidson to complete his sociology degree 13 years after leaving, but he doubled down on his alma mater by taking an assistant general manager role for both the men’s and women’s teams. However, unlike Shaq, Curry’s role was more ‘ceremonial’ as opposed to an actual functional role with the team.

Former Atlanta Hawks star Trae Young is following a strikingly similar path at Oklahoma. He joined the Sooners as an assistant GM while still in his prime years, pledging $1 million and lending his voice to player personnel, roster-building, and brand development for a program he once carried as a record‑setting freshman.

Shaq, Curry, and Young are part of a growing wave of elite athletes who circle back to campus not just for a diploma but to actively invest in the next generation. They join names like Vince Carter and Michael Jordan, who returned to North Carolina to finish their degrees.

From recruiting to NIL and player development, Shaq will utilise years of experience to improve campus life and help build something for the next wave. We can only hope more legends follow this blueprint as the sport of basketball needs a revival at the grassroots level.