I won NBA title on Kobe-Shaq Lakers team – O’Neal took me shopping and even offered to pay for my dad’s funeral
SHAQUILLE O'Neal has been known for his generosity and big heart with the Los Angeles Lakers icon often using his fortune to support people in need.
The 15-time NBA All-Star started performing good deeds back in his playing days, as ex-Lakers teammate Mike Penberthy, 48, once recalled.
In Jeff Pearlman's book Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty," Penberthy said O'Neal was like "a big brother with a huge bank account"
To explain the comparison, the ex-point guard – who spent his only two NBA seasons with Shaq and Kobe Bryant in LA, winning the 2001 championship – recalled a story from the day of his Lakers debut.
As he arrived wearing a Banana Republic suit jacket, O'Neal pulled him aside.
"You don’t have any suits, do you?" Penberthy remembered the Lakers star asking him quietly.
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His answer was no.
The next day, Shaq took him to his personal tailor and got him six new suits.
That wasn't the most remarkable example of O'Neal's kindness that Penberthy, who served as a Lakers assistant coach between 2019-2022, recalled.
"When my father died, Shaq offered to pay for the funeral," he said.
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"He’s that type of guy."
O'Neal took Penberthy's fellow Lakers rookie Mark Madsen shopping as well, buying him clothes – and a Chevy Tahoe after negotiating a good deal himself, Madsen told Pearlman.
Shaq's character isn't crystal clear and he's been open about his regrets from both private and professional lives.
But he's proven to be a man with lots of empathy and thoughtfulness.
Last year, O'Neal made the headlines when he walked into a Houston deli on Christmas Eve and bought a meal for everyone inside.
He's also been known to go to supermarkets and buy random people the products they look at on the shelf.