Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most successful NBA players turned businessmen ever. Even before retiring from the game of basketball, Shaq made sure that he invested in a wide variety of industries. While his basketball abilities and funny personality helped him land a lot of marketing money, his decision-making helped him to be a very successful businessman.

Even though Shaq looks like a very laid-back guy, he has his principles. One of the perks of having a military father. During a recent interview with SUCCESS magazine, O’Neal shared some details about his education, his children, his parents, business principles, etc.

And when the interviewer asked how Shaq feels about his son playing basketball, he said that it feels good. But he also told his son that he doesn’t necessarily have to play basketball.

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Shaquille O’Neal about giving his fortune to his children

Shaq also said that he told his children that they don’t need another basketball player in the family and they can pursue whatever they want to. Shaquille O’Neal said, “…You can be anything. I don’t put pressure on them to play basketball. Only put pressure on him to stay educated…”

The Big Diesel also talked about one of his videos going viral, where he talked about giving his fortune to his children. And said that he still stands by what he said.

Shaq said, “…You have to have three degrees to touch my G’s… The higher you go, the more you get from me. And I think that’s the best way to do it. We have a lot of guys that are well-off, they just give their kids stuff. There’s way too many temptations in these days…”  

Shaq values education more than anything and wants his children to do well in school. And he credits his success to his education. He said that when he went to business meetings or contract discussions, people would greet him and then turn to his lawyers or agents to discuss the details.

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But the Lakers legend wanted to be in control. He said that he didn’t want him to end up like some athletes who end up broke because of their agents. So he had to educate himself to understand the business side of things. And said that he wanted to hear it direct from the opposite party and not through his agents or lawyers.

O’Neal also said that it was because of his parents, who pushed him to finish college. He said that his mother would ask him to finish college even when he was making good money in the NBA.