Shaq Net Worth Estimate:
Shaq net worth is currently estimated as being at about approximately $400 million. The bulk of Shaq net worth has come from his legendary basketball career, and the many various business and entertainment ventures have occurred as the result of it..
Who is Shaq?
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Shaq is the nickname of Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal, a world famous basketball player who is currently an analyst on Inside the NBA, a television show about the National Basketball Association.
At 7’1” and 325 pounds, Shaq had a nineteen year long NBA career during which he played for 6 different teams. A 4 time NBA champion, Shaq is considered to be one of the all time great basketball players.
Over the course of his career, Shaq played for the Orlando Magic, the Los Angeles Lakers, the Miami Heat, the Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and finally the Boston Celtics. He has won numerous awards including MVP awards, a Rookie of the Year award , fifteen All Star Game selections, and more.
In terms of scores, Shaq ranks as the eighth of all time in terms of points scored, sixth when it comes to field goals, fifteenth for rebounds, and eighth for blocks.
Shaq’s Career
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In 1992, Shaq was drafted by the Orlando Magic as their first pick overall. Magic Johnson helped train him before he began. Shaq wore the #32 jersey. In his first week alone, the NBA had already named him Player of the Week, the first basketball player to ever achieve this notable feat.
In 1993, Shaq was named Rookie of the Year, as well as being the first to be named an All-Star starter since 1985, when Michael Jordon achieved that honor. By the end of the season, The Magic had finished 41-41, winning twenty games more than the year before.
In his second season, Shaq had the 1st triple double of his basketball career, along with fifteen blocks and twenty-eight rebounds, which to this day are career highs for him. With Shaq on the team, the Magic completed the season with 50-32, and even more significantly made the playoffs, the 1st time the team had ever accomplished that.
In his third season, Shaq was the best scoring player in the NBA with an average of 29.3. He ended up finishing in second in the MVP competition to David Robinson. In 1995, the team won the playoffs against the Boston Celtics. Next, in the momentous conference semifinals, they beat the Chicago Bulls, and then the Indiana Pacers.
Ultimately, they got to the NBA Finals, up against the Houston Rockets, who ended up winning.
Shaq sadly had to miss much of the next season due to an injury. Even with that, he still did well, getting chosen for the All-Star Game and the All-NBA 3rd team.
After that season, Shaq’s contract was up and he was temporarily a free agent, playing in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, with the US basketball team, winning a gold medal with his team.
During the Olympics, the news broke that Shaq had signed up with the Los Angeles Lakers for a 7-year contract worth $121 million. During his first season with them, the team won fifty six games, and he did very well, although again had to miss a great deal of the year due to being injured.
In Shaq’s first Lakers playoff game, he scored forty six points, the most the Lakers had ever scored in such a game since 1969. The next year, Shaq had an average of 28.3 points as well as 11.4 rebounds, leading the entire NBA with field goal percentage of 58.4. He then accomplished this feat again for the next four seasons in a row.
After an iffy next season, in 1999, the LA Lakers hired a new head coach, Phil Jackson, who turned their luck around. On the sixth of March in the year 2000, Shaq scored sixty one points (a career high) as well as twenty three rebounds and three assists in a fantastic win against the Clippers. Shaq’s game still hasn’t been beaten.
That year, Shaq was also voted as the NBA’s MVP, ending up only short of being the NBA’s first ever unanimously voted MVP by only a single vote.
At the start of 2002, Shaq got involved in an infamous brawl in the middle of a game in which the team was facing the Chicago Bulls. After the Bulls’ Brad Miller intentionally fouled, Shaq punched him, leading to a huge multi player fight. Shaq was suspended for 3 games and received a fine of fifteen thousand dollars.
In 2001-2002, Shaq and team member Kobe Bryant led the team to winning titles for three consecutive years. All three years, Shaq was also named the NBA Finals’ MVP, and with the highest scoring average that a center had ever received in the history of the NBA finals.
In 2002-2003, Shaq had to miss the first twelve games of the season in order to have surgery on a toe deformation that had been causing him a great deal of pain.
In 2004, after getting in some conflicts with management and not getting the pay rise he wanted, Shaq left the team for the Miami Heat, who traded the Lakers for four of their players. Shaq brought them great success instantly, getting fifty nine wins, which was the Eastern Conference’s best in 2004-2005.
Shaq played seventy three games, the most he did in a season in years. He only very narrowly lost the MVP Award that year in one of the NBA’s closest votes ever. He led them in the East Conference Finals even though he had a severe thigh bruise, and only lost very narrowly.
After this season, Shaq signed a five year long extension with them to the tune of $100 million. In the next season, Shaq got a bad ankle injury in the second game and had to miss the next eighteen due to it.
In April 2006, Shaq had the second triple double of his career, when facing the Toronto Raptors. He finished that season as the leader of the league in terms of field goal percentage. That season, Shaq also helped the Heat get to the NBA Finals for the first time ever. At the subsequent finals, they got their first title, and Shaq’s fourth.
The next season, Shaq had to miss thirty five games due to a knee injury that ended up needing surgery. At this point, Shaq’s career began to falter a bit. He wasn’t scoring as well as he used to and many were putting it down to his age, now that he was in his mid-30s. He was getting career lows
After thirty three games in 2007-08, the Miami Heat traded Shaq over with the Phoenix Suns, where his game started to improve again, well enough to help the team get to the playoffs. He continued to improve throughout the next year, crediting the training they gave him, and particularly helping him handle his old toe injury.
In 2008-2009, Shaq led the Phoenix Suns to second place and, in the 2009 All-Star Game, was named co-MVP with Kobe Bryant. In February 2009, Shaq had an impressive forty point game, the forty ninth of his career.
In 2009, the Suns trade him with the Cleveland Cavaliers in order to cut their costs. Not long after, Shaq’s right thumb was severely injured, requiring surgery. Throughout the season, Shaq scored career lows. By the next year, Shaq had signed with the Boston Celtics.
Shaq had to keep missing games due to various injuries. At one point, after missing twenty seven games due to an Achilles injury, he played only 5 minutes of a game before having to stop due to straining his right calf. Not long afterwards, he decided to retire as his body had taken enough damage.
Additionally, Shaq has had a music career, putting out 5 rap albums as well as a greatest hits. Despite not having incredible rap abilities, his fame and popularity ensured that his albums were successful nonetheless. The first, Shaq Diesel, was certified platinum by the RIAA.
In 1995, he rapped on Michael Jackson’s song “2 Bad”, and he recorded three songs for the soundtrack to the film Kazaam in which he starred as a genie. He also appeared in the Aaron Carter song “That’s How I Beat Shaq”, also appearing in the music video.
In 2010, Shaq also had the honor of conducting the Boston Pops Orchestra, and at other times has also acted as a DJ.
As alluded to above, Shaq has also had a bit of a film career, beginning with Blue Chips and the previously mentioned Kazaam, both of which got universally dreadful reviews. In 1997, Shaq did achieve the significant milestone of being one of the earliest Black actors to play a comic book superhero in a film, namely Steel.
There was only one person to do it first: Michael Jai White, whose starring role as Spawn came out only 2 weeks before Shaq’s film.
Shaq has also played himself on HBO’s highly acclaimed sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the episode, Shaq was injured due to Larry David accidentally tripping him as he stretched. Shaq also appeared on two episodes of The Parkers and two of My Wife and Kids.
Shaq also made screen cameos in Scary Movie 4, Adam Sandler’s Jack and Jill, and Freddy Got Fingered. He also had a small appearance in a film called CB4, and played the role of a cop in a TV commercial for SportsCenter, in which he rescued a mascot tiger from the top of a tree. Shaq also played a cop in Grown Ups 2.
Shaq also played himself in numerous animated productions, including The LEGO Movie, as well as episodes of Static Shock, Uncle Grandpa, and Johnny Bravo.
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Shaq Early Life
Shaq was born as Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal on the sixth of March in the year 1972 in Newark, New Jersey, United States of America. Shaq’s mom was Lucille O’Neal and his dad, Joe Toney. Joe was an amateur basketball player but was also a drug addict, which led to his imprisonment when Shaq was still a baby.
Upon getting out, Toney did not return to Shaq’s life but rather relinquished his rights as a parent to Phillip Arthur Harrison, Lucille’s new husband and Shaq’s stepdad.
Like Shaq, his family are all tall. His dad was 6’1” and his mom was 6’2, and he himself was already 6’6”. As a kid, he was a member of the Boys & Girls Club of America, which he says helped keep him on the straight and narrow as a kid.
His stepdad being an Army sergeant, the family moved around a bit, ultimately leaving Newark and relocating to various military bases, first in Germany and then Sant Antonio, Texas. By the time he was 16, Shaq was 6’10” and playing basketball for his high school. Shaq broke records for his team and led them to a state championship win.
In 1989, he had 791 rebounds, which remain a record for the state for any player. After high school, Shaq attended Louisiana State University, where his course work was business.
He also played basketball, and won All-American twice, SEC Player of the Year twice, and also earned the Adolph Rupp Trophy for the year’s best male basketball player. The UPI and AP also named him the best college basketball player of 1991. Ultimately, Shaq opted to leave school to pursue a career in the NBA.
Later on, Louisiana State University inducted Shaq into their Hall of Fame. A bronze state of him still stands outside their basketball practice building.
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Shaq’s Personal Life and Family
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In December 2002, Shaq got married to Shaunie Nelson. They had 4 kids: Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir, and Me’arah. Shaunie Nelson is also mom to Myles, a son from an earlier romantic relationship. Shaq is also dad to a daughter, Taahirah O’Neal, via an ex-girlfriend called Arnetta Yardbourgh. They divorced in 2009.
From 2010 to 2012, Shaq dated Nicole Hoopz Alexander, a reality teleevision star. From 2014 to 2018, Shaq dated a model named Laticia Rolle.
Shaq’s mom was Baptist and his stepdad Muslim.
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Shaq’s Social Media Influence
Shaq has an extremely large social media presence on which he plugs the various companies with which he has endorsement deals, along with other career updates which helps connect him with his fans and grow Shaq net worth even further.
Shaq has an official public verified Facebook account. Shaq’s official public verified Facebook account handle is simply @shaq, all lower case letters. On this popular social media platform, Shaq has over nine million followers as of the present time.
Shaq mainly uses his Facebook account to post about various career updates, endorsement deals, appearances, and so on and so forth as well as to post messages to his fans, all of which helps contribute to Shaq net worth.
Shaq has an official public verified Twitter account. Shaq’s official public verified Twitter account handle is @SHAQ. Due to the fact that Twitter’s search algorithm is not case sensitive, however, it can also be entered in all lower case. Shaq has over fifteen and a half million followers as of the present time. Shaq is currently following 835.
Shaq mainly uses his Twitter account to post about his thoughts and observations, various career updates, endorsement deals, appearances, and so on and so forth, all of which adds to Shaq net worth.
Shaq has an official public verified Instagram account. Shaq’s official public verified Instagram account handle is simply @shaq, all lower case letters. On this popular social media platform, Shaq has over twenty five and a half million followers as of the present time. Shaq is currently following 1, 678 in return.
Shaq mainly uses his Instagram account to post photos of himself, various career updates, endorsement deals, appearances, and so on and so forth, all of which also helps Shaq net worth.
Shaq does not have a professional LinkedIn account as of the present time. This is perhaps not surprising as people at Shaq’s level at success and fame don’t necessarily require the sort of business networking that this service provides.
Should the situation change and Shaq ever sign up for one in the future, we will be sure to update this page with that information. After all, our goal is to keep our readers informed of all of the latest news regarding Shaq net worth, career, and life.
TikTok
Shaq has an official public verified TikTok account. Shaq’s official public verified TikTok account handle is simply @shaq, all lower case letters. On this popular social media platform, Shaq has over nine million followers and thirty one and a half million likes as of the present time. Shaq is currently following 144 in return.
Shaq mainly uses his TikTok account to post post fun videos including various career updates, endorsement deals, appearances, and so on and so forth, all of which also helps Shaq net worth continue to grow.
Shaq Net Worth & Bio Summary
| Name | Shaq |
| Real Name | Shaquille Rashaun O’Neal |
| Age | 50 |
| Place of Birth | Newark, New Jersey, USA |
| Occupation | Sports Person |
| Net Worth Estimate | $400 Million |