Yes, he’s here to watch Angel Reese play as a pro for the first time. But Shaquille O’Neal had more than one business at Wintrust Arena. Reebok’s president of the basketball division was decked in Ken glam for Chicago Sky’s ‘Barbie Night’ where Angel Reese debuted Reebok’s first basketball sneaker in a decade. Apart from soft-launching the Reebok Engine A, the multi-preneur dropped by his side hustle within the Sky arena.

After launching one of the Big Chicken Shaq stores in Illinois at Rosemont last year, O’Neal and JRS Hospitality opened a Big Chicken inside Wintrust Arena this June. It’s part of Shaq’s world domination plans to make his favorite food a sports-viewing staple. It’s launched in the Climate Pledge Arena and Busch Stadium already. Breaking into Sky’s domain is expected while his prodigy Angel Reese plays there.

So between cheering on Reese, a couple of interviews, and meeting fans, Shaq stopped by the Big Chicken counter. Big Chicken’s social media posts shared it citing, “The boss (@Shaq) doing quality control at our @WintrustArena location in Chi-Town!”

Now Shaquille O’Neal does this a lot. There’s a high chance you could walk into one of the Las Vegas stores and find a familiar 7-foot giant making your sandwich. Except, nothing about this visit looks like a quality inspection.

Channeling Ryan Gosling’s bright co-ords style from Barbie with a Diesel chain and sunglasses, Shaq drew a large crowd to the counter. He met a few employees, bumped fists with them, and checked out the space. He hung out with fans and took pictures with them while he was at it.

After a very lowkey launch, he’s given this Big Chicken location a huge boost by attending his first WNBA game of the season. From the sounds of it, he needed to put the Big Chicken flag in Skytown in a big way.

Big Chicken Shaq has competition in Skytown

JRS Hospitality and Big Chicken CEO, Josh Halpern, collaborated with Oak View Group to bring Big Chicken to Illinois in a big way. The Midwest got its first store at Rosemont and two more cities in Illinois have locations in development. During this expansion plan, Big Chicken launched in Wintrust Arena at the same time the team got an official sponsor.

Raising Cane’s inked its first WNBA partnership as Chicago Sky’s sponsor. One of the first displays of this partnership was Reese running a Raising Cane’s pass for a shift among other duties as the face of the brand. That’s after Reese openly admitted her love for Harold’s Chicken claiming “Harold’s Chicken is bussin’, I ain’t going to lie to you.” Never a shoutout to Big Chicken Shaq though.

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Raising Cane’s is a direct competitor of Big Chicken in most cities and on the Carnival Cruise Line. And even a competitor for Reese’s attention. So Shaquille O’Neal had to prove with his larger-than-life presence that Big Chicken is here in Skytown.