Shaquille O’Neal, commonly known as Shaq, is a popular basketball player who has retired. He was one of the NBA star players of his time. He has his hands in entrepreneurship too, which adds a lot to shaq net worth. The net worth of Shaq is around $400 million, which is four hundred million dollars in words. He earned a lump-sum amount of money from his salary as an NBA player and product endorsements.
He earned $292 million from the NBA and around $200 million through endorsements. This amount of net worth makes Shaq one of the richest athletes in the world.
Shaq’s Sources of Income:
He has a diversity of sources of income after he retired from basketball. He makes more money after his retirement. The main sources of his income are –
NBA salary
Product endorsements
Television show host
Investments in companies
Real estate and many more.
Shaq’s Basketball Earnings:
In the early days of his basketball career, he played with several teams in the NBA commencing with Orlando Magic in 1992. Soon, he became famous and earned $3,000,000 in his first year. And, from the following year, he was paid $ 9,000,000 from the Orlando Magic.
After Orlando, in 1996, Shaq joined Los Angeles Lakers. For the first year on the team, he got around $1,000,000 which was raised to a whopping amount of $ 24,749,999 at the time of his last year with the Lakers.
After then, he switched to Miami Heat, where he started with $ 27,000,000. After Miami Heat, from 2007 to 2009, he was part of the Phoenix Suns and then on Cleveland Cavaliers and ended his professional career with the Boston Celtics. During the late time of his career, his pay went down to $1, 353,181 which was way less than his early career.
He made a lot of money during his basketball career and left a massive impact on basketball fans too.
Shaq’s Involvement in Media Industry:
Shaquille O’Neal has featured in many movies and television shows. Some of them are –
Blue Chips (1994)
Steel (1997)
Good Burger
Chairman of the Board
The Wash (2001)
After the Sunset
Scary Movie 4 (2006)
The House Bunny (2008)
He is a television producer too. He also has his hands in the rap industry. Shaq started his rap career along with his basketball career. His first rap album named ‘Shaq Diesel’ was released in 1993. Though, he had a very little shot in his rapping career but made good friends in the industry that helped him to produce the music. Yes, he also sponsored music albums. Through keen involvement in the media industry, he is making a huge amount of money.
His Business Ventures:
Shaq is actively investing in the share market along with the real estate business side by side. He has invested in the perfect business like Papa John’s and also joined the Board of Directors there. He also invested in an NBA team which he later released.
He had a magnificent mansion in Orlando. The mansion is in a large area. He put it on sale in 2018, due to high prices he had to lower the price and list it again in 2019 and 2020. Finally, he got a potential buyer and sold it for $16.5 million in 2021. He also listed a property situated in LA for $ 2.5 million.
Investment in Fast Food Business:
Being a smart investor and a great observer, Shaq saw the promising returns in the fast-food industry and moved in with his understanding. He owns many restaurants under famous franchises. He owns a fast-food business worth $127 million.
Some of his renowned restaurants are mentioned below-
Auntie Anne’s (17 outlets)
Five Guys Burgers ( 155 outlets)
Krispy Kreme (1 outlet)
Papa John’s (9 outlets)
Owning these franchise outlets he earns a lot more money in comparison to the time of his basketball career.
Gaming Industry:
Shaq has also invested in the esports industry which is a gaming industry in which there is a lot of potential to boom in the future. He got to know about this industry from his kids and saw the opportunity to invest in the industry which also helped him to grow his investment journey. Being a good researcher he collaborated with NRG Esports.
Some Mind-Boggling Expenses of Shaq:
Shaq has a history of some fancy expenses in the past. Once, he revealed that he had bought 7000 gallons of gas in a single month which would have cost him $27000 per month.
Once, he had spent $200,000 as his monthly expense. He spent a lot on trips, shopping, etc. In an interview, he revealed that once he had done 10,000 dollars of shopping from Walmart only. Having an enthusiastic money spending will, still Shaq is one of the richest athletes in the world.
Conclusion:
Along with being a famous basketball player in his early times, Shaq is an active investor, has a good businessman mindset, and a better understanding of the market, which helped him to be one of the richest athletes in the world. His net worth, which is $400 million is a combination of many fields from sports to media to real estate to the stock market.
