KEY POINTS

  • Shaquille O'Neal doesn't want to be a celebrity anymore
  • O'Neal insists that he's just a "regular" and "nice" guy
  • The Lakers legend has done a lot of good things for other people

A Los Angeles Lakers all-time great has set the record straight about how he wants people to see him inside and out.

Apart from being a Lakers icon, Shaquille O’Neal is also a famous TV personality, movie star, and basically a Hollywood figure.

However, in a recent interview with New York Post, O’Neal shockingly denounced his “celebrity-ness” as he didn’t want to be tagged as one of those big-shot celebrities whom he referred to as “crazy.”

“These celebrities are going freaking crazy and I don’t want to be one,” O’Neal exclaimed. “I denounce my celebrity-ness today. I’m done with it. I don’t want to be in that category. Celebrities are crazy, they really are. Don’t call me that anymore.”

“These people are out of their freaking mind with how they treat people, what they do, what they say,” he continued. “That’s never been me. I never want to be looked at like that.”

The NBA Hall of Famer further stressed that just because he’s already rich and famous, it doesn’t mean he’s “bigger” and “smarter” than anybody.

“I’m a regular person that listened, followed his dreams and made it,” the Lakers legend admitted. “ I came from nothing. But, just because I made it doesn’t mean I’m bigger than you, smarter than you—just because I have more money doesn’t mean I’m better than you. I’ve never been that way and I never will be that way. So I don’t want to be in that category of people.”

Shaquille O'Neal
NBA legend turned investor forbes.com

Ultimately, O’Neal bared that whenever his name pops out in a conversation, he wants people to remember a “nice guy.”

“When they talk about Shaq, what do you say? ‘ He’s a nice guy,’” the 15-time NBA All-Star pointed out. “Because what else can you be? You’re either nice or you’re the A-word, and I definitely won’t be looked at as the A-word.”

“I want people to say, ‘Bro, he’s nice. He didn’t have an entourage. His people didn’t take my phone because I took a picture and threw it,’” he added.

Indeed, O’Neal has done an array of random acts of kindness through the years.

To name a few, he once gifted a fan a laptop for expressing his deep condolences for Kobe Bryant’s tragic passing.

He also donated a house to a 12-year-old shooting victim’s family and once paid for a fan’s engagement ring

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