After winning an NBA Championship, Shaquille O’Neal once turned down a deal with a major cereal brand.

 Back in 2001, O’Neal secured his second national championship alongside his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant. O’Neal put up 29 points, leading the team to victory, according to the NBA.

 Unsurprisingly, offers were coming O’Neal’s way, including from Wheaties cereal. They had also reached out when he secured his first championship in 2000. However, O’Neal declined both times. He was more of a fan of its competitors, such as Frosted Flakes and Fruity Pebbles.

 “My people said, ‘Hey man, won’t you be on the cover of Wheaties.’ I said, ‘I can’t do that.’ They said, ‘What do you mean, brother? Breakfast of champions.’ I said, ‘Don’t know what it tastes like, never gonna taste it.’ ‘What do you mean?’ I said, ‘Well, Frosted Flakes will always be my first option if you want to talk cereal business with me and Fruit Loops, then Fruity Pebbles,” he said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

O’Neal doubled down on the importance of authenticity when aligning himself with brands in a conversation with Business Insider, commenting, “I’m turning a lot of deals down because I’m a whole-school guy, and I’m on the handshaking principles, so I don’t want to take your money if I’m not really into it.”

While O’Neal admits to rejecting various deals, he has built an expansive portfolio with partnerships, including Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Pepsi, and Reebok, where he serves as President of Basketball.

In the investment world, he backed Google during its early days. He is now the largest shareholder in Authentic Brands Group, which purchased Champion for $1.2 billion in October 2024, as AFROTECH™ previously reported.

Overall, he focuses on investing his time and dollars into brands that are making a difference.

“Stay true to your core beliefs. I try not to base everything on a monetary value,” O’Neal told AFROTECH™ in a 2023 interview. “I get a lot of deals. ‘Wear the shirt, put your name on it, we’ll sell it.’ I like investing in things that’s going to change people’s lives. I heard Jeff Bezos say that once, and that’s how he invests. So, I follow the strategy, and it’s been working very well for me.”