Basketball: Shaquille O’Neal delights an entire restaurant during a tryst

If Shaquille O’Neal is one of the most famous names in the world of sport today, he obviously owes it to his exploits as an NBA player between 1992 and 2011, but also to his whimsical personality. Regularly singled out for his questionable work ethic when he was on the court, the former Los Angeles Lakers pivot also distinguished himself by his excesses outside, in particular a complicated relationship with money in his early days. In 2020, during a conference, he confided that he had spent a million dollars in no time just after signing his first big contract: “I slammed a million in an hour. I put it all in fancy cars, jewelry, and a trip to Las Vegas.”

The “Shaq” has since calmed down and has even become an example to follow in terms of financial management, he whose fortune is estimated at 400 million dollars. But his old demons can sometimes resurface. Most recently, he dropped over $25,000 in one night at a New York restaurant. How? By paying the bill for each table. The story is revealed by the American magazine Page Sixwhich relied on the testimony of several people.

Shaquille O’Neal visited the Jue Lan Club, a Chinese establishment located in the heart of the Big Apple, accompanied by an unidentified woman. At the end of this amorous rendezvous, he paid for the meal for all the waiters, before taking charge of the bill for the forty tables present. According to several sources, he would have wanted customers to be informed of his act of generosity only after his departure.

And he is also said to have been “extremely generous” towards the staff. “He left them the biggest tip they’ve ever received”, assures a witness to Page Six. A follower of projections in his role as a star consultant at TNT, the “Shaq” demonstrates that he is also a man with a tender heart.