Shaquille O'Neal's Latest Business Aspiration Gets Roasted Online

Shaquille O'Neal is, both literally and figuratively, a massive presence on the NBA landscape. The living legend stands tall (pun largely intended) as one of the best big men in modern history. After hanging up his sneakers, he entered the media; his work on TNT isn't perfect, but Shaq is a key part of the network's NBA coverage.

But if O'Neal gets his way, his involvement could change.

"I would like to," the famous center said during a Bloomberg interview, when asked if he was going to return to NBA ownership anytime soon. After some prompting to say "yes," O'Neal added that he would "definitely like to" and that he would take "any team that is available."

In fairness to The Diesel, this isn't the first time he's touched on the idea of ownership. He was previously a minority stakeholder in the Sacramento Kings and spoke about the prospect of being involved with a potential Las Vegas expansion team in 2023. As noted by CBS Sports, O'Neal initially said he didn't want to be part of an ownership group, but later said he just wanted to be involved.

But while the idea of O'Neal calling the shots in an organization isn't new, it still prompted plenty of ribbing on social media.

On the NBA subreddit, a post sharing the Bloomberg story garnered plenty of comments focused on O'Neal's seemingly endless array of endorsements.

"First jerseys to have 50 ads on them," the top comment, which had 4,900 upvotes as of Wednesday morning, quipped.

Replies to that comment included "The Las Vagas [sic] Generals will have all the money and insurance they need," and "Renames the team to the Subway Icy Hot Generals."

But that wasn't the end of the barbs. Other users joked that "'Whatever is available' seems to be how he picks most of his sponsorship deals," and that the team could be called "The Las Vegas 5 Guys."

To be fair, there were also some basketball takes within the thread. And while those were a bit less humorous, they still weren't singing O'Neal's praises.

"Shaq would be too involved which is a bad thing because he doesn't even watch the games when it's his job to lol," user Rakkuuuu wrote, presumably in reference to TNT segments highlighting O'Neal's lack of knowledge regarding current players. Others, like user CitizenCue speculated that the legend would fall into "a Dunning-Kruger trap."

For context, the Dunning-Kruger effect either occurs when someone with limited knowledge overestimates their own competency in a specific area or when someone with great talent assumes that the same task is easy for everyone.

In this case, O'Neal could think that he knows how to build a championship team due to his time as a player, ignoring the fact that making personnel decisions on an organizational level requires a different set of skills.

"Yeah, I feel like he'd be really biased towards the type of player that he likes and not necessarily good at putting together a modern team," User BasedMe702 explained. "Like Chuck (Charles Barkley) has mentioned that when he played he had to watch film and study his opponents, while Shaq always just says stuff like 'this guy/team wanted it more' because he legit doesn't get just not being bigger, stronger, more athletic, and more skilled than anyone else on the court."

Newsweek reached out to PRP, who list O'Neal as one of their clients, via their website, seeking comment about the star's ownership aspirations and the negative online reaction.

But with all of that being said, we probably won't see Shaq as a majority owner anytime soon. For all of his fame and fortune, buying an NBA franchise still requires another level of wealth. Forbes' 2023 valuations, for example, pegged the lowest-valued club (the Grizzlies) at $2.4 billion. The numbers thrown around regarding the Dallas Mavericks' sale also suggest that O'Neal would be priced out of full ownership.

Could another stake in a team be on the cards? Sure, but that would presumably keep O'Neal removed from making franchise-level decisions or meddling in personnel matters.