Shaquille O’Neal is one of the greatest players to have ever played in the NBA. His exploits on-court are plenty and applauded around the world. But his lesser-known side, off the court, has also gained a lot of traction since his retirement. Particularly, his generosity.
His youth-oriented charitable organization, The Shaquille O’Neal Foundation, focuses on empowering underprivileged youth. Shaq quoted his motto and belief about children, undertaking responsibility for the younger ones around us.
“Children are the future. I love children. I have children. It’s our job as adults, it’s our job as people to always take care of the children, whether they’re ours or not.”
The 49-year old has helped out various people in life, going about it without publicizing any of it. And his most recent act of generosity has won many hearts on social media.
Shaquille O’Neal gifts the Collins family 2 cars
Shaq recently met a family of 12 and quite possibly made them have an unimaginably joyous day. The Collins family, a popular family active on Instagram to an audience of over 350,000, was reached out to by Shaq. He took the entire family out to dinner and spent a lovely time with them at Babe’s Chicken.
The former Lakers and Heat star then offered to help them upgrade their 12-passenger car to a 15-passenger van from a Mercedes dealership. On finding out that there were no cars in stock, he helped them place a customized order for a car that would arrive later in the year.
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Shaq did not leave it at that either. The 4-time NBA champion took the family out for dinner yet again. His generosity was on full display at the Rainforest Cafe, where he took care of another table’s bill. He went on to also tip a whopping $1000 dollars to a waitress whose car had broken down earlier in the day.
And in a final act of giving, Shaq made sure that the Collins family would not have to wait till July for their van to arrive. He took them to a Ford dealership and bought them a new truck so they would not have to endure the poor air conditioning of their current drive.
Shaq’s endearing efforts are never going to be forgotten by the fortunate family, and he continues to set an example to the next generation of giving back.