NBA great Shaquille O’Neal celebrated his March 6 birthday at Atlantic Station taking pictures and giving away Oreo Chocolate Candy Bars through the Oreo Birthday Giveaway. As a kid, he loved Oreos and that hasn’t changed now that he’s 46.
Even better, he and Oreo share the shame birthday but they’re much older at 106. Just as he has transitioned from high school phenom and college great to four-time NBA champion and now a trusted NBA analyst on Atlanta-based “NBA on TNT,” so has Oreo transitioned, with its candy bars.
“It’s actually been around a while,” O’Neal said of the candy bar. A lot of people, however, don’t know, which is where O’Neal comes in. “When you say Oreo, you automatically think of cookies, right? So we just wanted to introduce this to the consumer and let them know, ‘Hey we’re still Oreo but we have something else.’ So I’m giving away a million free Oreo Chocolate Candy Bars.”
People waited in line in the rain to snap a picture with O’Neal, mostly in front of the Oreo Snack Shaq, nestled near California Pizza Kitchen, and get their candy bar.
Atlanta isn’t just a promotional stop for the NBA great. He’s quick to tell you that he lives here now.
His love affair with Atlanta began over 25 years ago but he only recently made it official.
“Honestly, my first year here was Freaknik back in 1992,” he confessed. “So I bought a condo then and I’ve been living here ever since. I used to live in Buckhead and then, when I started working for TNT, I used to live in Gwinnett County. And then last year I just bought a fabulous property in Henry County. So I live in Henry County now and I changed my residency from Florida to Georgia.”
There are many reasons why he calls Atlanta home, he said. “I just love the people, of course. The culture. The city has always been a great city. Nightlife is great. The people are great,” he repeated. “My job is great. Where I live, you can get a nice big spread for cheap. The house I have now would probably cost me $15 million in Orlando and . . . so I’m happy.”
At LSU, O’Neal gave basketball fans previews of the NBA greatness to come but, surprisingly, he doesn’t tune into college basketball much. March Madness, whose Sweet Sixteen and Elite Eight will be in Atlanta this year, is actually one of his least favorite times.
“I don’t have a lot of great memories,” he said of March Madness. “I always tell people I’ve won on every level except college. I had fun playing in college. I don’t really watch a lot of college basketball so I’m just an LSU fan. I’ll probably start watching college basketball next year when my son plays for UCLA, but I haven’t really watched a lot of college basketball.”
Like any other sports fan, however, he is well aware of the never-ending controversy about the NCAA paying college athletes. “I think, at some point, the powers that be are going to have to look at changing something,” he offered. “Some people say ‘oh they are getting paid — free books, free food.’ And the other side says ‘hey, we generate a lot of money, we should be able to get some of that money.’
“The only problem I see,” he continued, “is that, for example, the SEC makes a lot of money, what about the HBCUs? So is everybody going to get the same thing? Or the schools that make more money, are they going to get more or is everybody going to get the same stipend? I think that’s going to be the problem when you talk about paying athletes.”
Getting paid for college basketball was never a dilemma for the Lakers great and Hall of Famer while playing for the purple and gold. “When I was young, I looked at college as a place of higher education,” he explained. “My father told me something that kind of changed my life. He said, ‘look we’ve been broke for 18 years; we can be broke for four more years until you get your degree.’”
As for the state of the NBA today, he thinks the game is in good shape, even if he’s less than thrilled with the prospect of the usual suspects of a few years now, Golden State and Cleveland, battling it out for the championship.
“Basketball is kind of back to where it was when Mike (Michael Jordan) and Magic (Johnson) and those guys and Kobe (Bryant) and myself, when we were playing. It’s very exciting now, especially for the fans,” he said.
And speaking of Kobe Bryant? “Yes he won an Oscar,” O’Neal grimaced. “I’m so jealous.”
His answer? “”Kazaam Part 2”,” he laughed, referencing his ill-fated 1996 film. “ ‘Kazaam Part 2’ coming soon.”
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