Photo: Paras Griffin/Getty
During an interview with entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk, O’Neal, the four-time NBA champion, said he used his connections to secure Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 5 consoles and delivered them to kids at an elementary school in Georgia.
“My father was a drill sergeant, my mother just was a hard-working woman,” O’Neal told Vaynerchuk on his podcast,The GaryVee Audio Experience.“They taught me the value of giving back. They taught me the value of helping those in need.”
“I called, you know, my friend from Nintendo Switch,” he continued. “Ordered about 1,000 Switches and 1,000 PS5s. I went to Walmart and got bikes. So you know yesterday, at this little elementary school in McDonough, Georgia, kids were crying, kids were happy. And that’s what it’s all about.”
“When I was with Toys ‘R Us, there was an alarming stat: 15 to 20 million kids wake up on Christmas Day and not receive one gift. I felt that one time. I don’t ever want a kid to feel like that,” O’Neal told Vaynerchuk during the podcast.
“So, as long as I’m on this Earth, I’m always trying to do what I can to make sure kids get good toys,” he added.
The Switch and PS5 were popular gifts this Christmas, with the latter beingone of the most difficult items to findon store shelves since its release in November 2020.
Video games weren’t the only things children received from O’Neal this year. Pictures from O’Neal’sShaq-a-Clausevent showed dozens of bears, basketballs, bikes, and other toys for the kids.
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While O’Neal stresses the importance of giving, he once told Page Six that he doesn’t like to receive presents.
“I do not accept gifts,” O’Neal told theoutletin 2019. “You show me a movie where Santa receives gifts and I’ll take one.”
source: people.com
