Shaq splurges on engagement ring in Georgia, video shows. But it wasn’t for him
Basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal says he likes to make people smile, and he did just that at a Georgia jewelry store this week.
O’Neal surprised a customer on Monday by paying for an engagement ring the man wanted to buy, video shows.
In a short video clip posted on Instagram by Shaq Fu Radio, the NBA Hall of Famer’s streaming platform, O’Neal is seen handing a credit card to a store employee. Then he shook hands with the customer.
O’Neal said he was shopping for earrings Monday at a Zales store in McDonough, where he owns a home roughly 30 miles south of Atlanta. That’s when he overhead a customer asking about financing options for a ring.
“He was saying, ‘Hey, how much do I owe to pay off my ring?’ And I was like, ‘My man, how much is the ring?’“ O’Neal recalled during Tuesday’s “NBA on TNT.” “I’m not going to say the amount, but this is something I do every day. ... I’m into making people happy, so whenever I leave the house, I just try to do a good deed.”
O’Neal said the man turned down his offer at first, to which he replied: “Don’t worry about it, I do it all the time. I’m just trying to make people smile.”
O’Neal made headlines when he surprised a man with a new laptop at Best Buy last year, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. He also donated proceeds from his 2020 Super Bowl party to the families of of those who died in a helicopter crash that killed his friend and former teammate Kobe Bryant, Bryant’s daughter and seven others.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 1:48 PM.