(AUDACY) Hall of Fame center Shaquille O’Neal came through in the clutch with a big assist for a young gentleman this week.
O'Neal was at a Zales jewelry store in Atlanta when he saw a young man purchasing a wedding ring and made the ultimate gesture — he decided to pay for the ring. A video of O’Neal handing his credit card to the salesperson at the time of purchase surfaced online, and the NBA on TNT crew aired it on Tuesday and asked O’Neal about the gesture.
“This happened yesterday… I went in there to get some hoop earrings," O'Neal said. "I seen the guy come in and he was just so shy. And he was saying, ‘How much I owe to pay off my ring?’ I was like, ‘My man, how much is the ring?’”
The man was trying to finance the ring, saying he’d come back each month to pay for it, but O'Neal assured him he would take care of it.
“I was like, ‘You know what? Tell your girlfriend I got it. I’ll take care of it,’” O’Neal said. “At first, he didn’t want to take it … I said, 'Don’t worry about it.' I do it all the time. I’m just trying to make people smile, that’s all.”
O’Neal had no intention of that moment being recorded, and that isn't why he did it, he said. He added he tries to do a good deed every time he leaves his house and recalled another instance of paying for someone’s furniture recently.
“This is something that I do every day,” he said. “The other day, me and my mom went furniture shopping. This lady, she had an autistic daughter. She was also looking to pay for some furniture. So, I just took care of her. I’m into making people happy. Whenever I leave the house, I try to do a good deed.”
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