Shaquille O’Neal Says He Turned Down A $40 Million Deal With Reebok After A Woman Cursed Him Out & Told Him His Sneakers Were Too Expensive

Shaquille O’Neal

Shaquille O’Neal Says He Turned Down A $40 Million Deal With Reebok After A Woman Cursed Him Out & Told Him His Sneakers Were Too Expensive

Would you turn down $40 Million if someone called you out your name?

While visiting the Full Send podcast on Thursday, Aug. 27th, Shaquille O’Neal, shared that $40 Million was not worth his integrity.

Shaquille O’Neal

While discussing what he calls his ‘best business story,’ Shaquille O’Neal said,

“I’m leaving the arena one day and this lady is ripping me a new one.” 

He continued saying,

“‘She said you mother*******, charging these babies all this money for shoes,’ and I had like $2000 in my pocket and I was like, ‘ma’am, I don’t make the prices here you go,’ and she smacked the money out my hand. She said, ‘why don’t you mother******* make these shoes affordable!’

Shaq says he realized that day that the woman was right and cut ties with Reebok that same day.

Following the encounter, the seven foot one NBA champion started his own brand with his ‘favorite’ store, Wal-Mart.

Speaking directly about his shoe line he said,

“I was in all stores and my price point for the shoes was $29-$19 and since then we sold over 400 million pairs.”

He added,

“It’s not kids that don’t want to wear $20 shoes, they don’t want to wear shoes that look like they cost $20.”

Shaquille O’Neal’s relationship with Reebok began in 1992 to which he launched the popular Reebok Shaq Attaq and Shaqnosis shoes.

Shaquille has held shares in Reebok, which was recently sold to Authentic Brands Group (ABG), since 2015.

Do you think Shaq was right for walking away from Reebok? Tell us in the comments. 

VIA