If you listen to a couple of huge sports fans talk for a while, there is a very good chance that one of the people involved in the conversation will state that a certain athlete sucks. While that makes a certain amount of sense since professional athletes get paid to play their sport in front of the world, it also is amazing that anyone would say something like that. After all, the worst professional athletes are miles better at sports than the rest of us.

As frustrating as it must be to be a skilled athlete who constantly gets crap from the general public, there is one thing that might be even worse, dealing with being completely ignored once your career ends. Fortunately for Shaq, it seems like he will never have to deal with that frustration. After all, Shaq leads such a fascinating life off the court that he has remained famous many years after he retired. For example, in 2018, Shaq managed to tell a captivating story about something that most people do all the time, shopping at Walmart.

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Shaq’s Fortune

As anyone with even a passing interest in the media should already know, sports make an incredible amount of money for everyone involved. After all, there are millions of people all over the world who are more than happy to spend their time and hard-earned money on supporting their favorite teams and athletes.

Since sports are so profitable, the top athletes in all of the major sports are paid a staggering amount of money to perform. Unfortunately, far too many formerly high-paid athletes wind up going broke not too long after they can no longer play. In fact, even extremely famous and successful athletes like Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman have suffered serious financial problems.

Unlike far too many of his former peers, Shaquille O'Neal remains incredibly comfortable financially, to say the very least. In fact, according to celebritynetworth.com, Shaq has a $400 million net worth as of this writing. For that reason, Shaq has been able to enjoy a truly incredible lifestyle throughout his adult life. For proof of that, all you have to do is look at the one-of-a-kind Walmart story Shaq once told.

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An Amazing Tale

In 2018, Shaquille O'Neal sat down for an interview with HBO’s Real Sports. During the conversation that followed, Shaq went on to talk about a lot of facets about his life and career. Despite all of that, it could be argued that the most amusing part of the interview is when Shaq talked about something that happened when he was traded to the Phoenix Suns in 2008. In fact, Shaq’s story was so entertaining that he would go on to tell it again during other media appearances, including when he went on The Late Late Show with James Corden.

When Shaq was traded to the Phoenix Suns, he found a new place to live that was closer to his new sports home. Unfortunately, when Shaq arrived in Phoenix, there was a mix-up and the moving company he hired to transport his things from Miami hadn’t arrived yet.

If most people arrived in their new home without the essentials, they would head to a store to get some food and a few items that they can’t live without. Of course, Shaq obviously is a pretty unique fellow and as the massive athlete explained during his Real Sports interview, he is “very impatient”. As a result, Shaq went shopping at a Walmart and instead of buying a few things, he went all out. Some of the things that Shaq described buying during his Walmart visit included computers, printers, TVs, and several kinds of clothes. In fact, according to him, Shaq spent $70,000 at the store which he says makes him “Walmart’s biggest customer” ever.

Related: 15 Unbelievable Things People ACTUALLY Wore To Walmart

While it is fascinating enough to imagine anyone spending $70,000 on themselves during a single Walmart visit, there is another reason why Shaq’s story is fascinating. After all, when Shaq plunked down his credit card to pay for everything, he had to deal with the humiliation of being declined. At least that was the case until Shaq was able to clear things up.

"The security team from American Express calls me, 'Hey man, somebody stole your credit card. They're at Walmart. I said, 'No sir, that's me.' The guy goes, 'What the f--k are you buying?!'" Even though Shaq has earned enough money in his life to be able to afford a wild spending spree like that, it makes sense that his credit card company assumed he was the victim of theft. After all, if most stars are going to spend tens of thousands of dollars at a single location, they are going to be at at somewhere like a high-end carlot, not Walmart.

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