The great NBA Shaquille O’Neal was recently in a jewelry store in Atlanta and ended up buying an engagement ring – but it was not so that he could propose to anyone. The former Laker saw a man buying a ring and offered to buy it for him.
The gesture was captured on camera and the video quickly went viral. Shaq is seen cleverly taking out his credit card and handing it over to the store clerk while the stranger prepares to pay. The two shook hands and posed for a photo afterwards.
The basketball star turned sports commentator talked about the gift during the NBA aftershow on Tuesday night on TNT. “This happened yesterday. I was in Zales looking for new earrings and I saw a guy,” Shaq told his co-hosts.
After a series of jokes about the fact that the famer’s lobby still goes shopping for himself, Shaq told his co-hosts what happened next. “I saw the guy, he was so shy. He said, ‘Hey, how much do I have to pay for the ring?’ “
Then Shaq came in and offered to cover her.
“That’s what I do every day,” Shaq said, adding that he and his mother recently bought furniture and offered to pay for a mother who had an autistic daughter. “I enjoy the happiness of the people. So whenever I leave the house, I just try to do it do a good deed,” he said.
Shaq said the man buying the ring was a “young child, a hardworking guy,” and the ring was about to be left. “I said, ‘You know what, tell your girlfriend I took it.’ Take care of her. “And at first he didn’t want to take it,” Shaq said. He told the man not to worry, he does it all the time.
“I’m just trying to make people smile,” he said.