Shaquille O’Neal has undoubtedly been blessed in this life. Aside from amassing a fortune during his NBA days, the basketball star has made wise business decisions and investments.
Today, he continues to reap the rewards of his hard work.
As one of the wealthiest athletes around, Shaq, 49, not only splurges on himself and his family—he also makes sure to share his blessings with others. In fact, he is known for his philanthropy and has gone viral countless times for his kind acts.
Shaq challenged himself to do at least one good deed every time he would leave the house, and it appears that the man has been faithfully sticking to this goal.
Shaq’s latest show of generosity involved a Texas family of 11, known on Instagram as “The Collins Kids.”
In an Instagram post on February 23, Karissa, the family’s matriarch, shared how they became the recipients of Shaq’s generous acts.
In February 2022, the sports star surprised the family with a visit and treated them to dinner at Babe’s Chicken.
“It was so much fun to just hang out and eat dinner with him,” Karissa, wrote on Instagram and Facebook.
But Shaq didn’t want it all to end with a simple dinner. The following day, he took the family to a Mercedes-Benz showroom and got them a brand new, 15-passenger van!
“He didn’t even know we were outgrowing our 12 passenger van and the air conditioning wasn’t always working the greatest and so this is such an outrageous blessing,” said Karissa, who has another baby on the way. “They didn’t have any in stock and so we got to customize and order a van that should be here in July.”
Karissa’s husband, former Harlem Globetrotter Mandrae Collins, is a manager at a Mercedes-Benz dealership in Fort Worth.
After that, Shaq took them to dinner at Rainforest Café, where he paid for another table’s entire meal, not knowing they came from out of state and were there on missions.
And after learning that their waitress’ car broke down that day, the basketball legend tipped the server with a whopping $1,000.
Mandrae, owned a truck that had been running without air conditioning and heat for a while. Shaq didn’t know about this, but when he saw the vehicle, he decided to take the family to a Ford dealership and bought the dad a brand new truck!