Shaquille “Shaq” O’Neal ranks as one of the best athletes to play the game of basketball, achieving multiple world championships, MVP awards, and Olympic Gold Medals. Since retiring he has expanded on that success developing multiple enterprises, and serving as spokesperson and television personality. His latest venture as Brand Ambassador for JCPenney’s Big & Tall line has him overseeing his own fashion brand, allowing him to serve a market long overlooked by major designers. In an exclusive HOMBRE interview Shaq talks about changing the marketplace and his keys to success.

Standing at 7’1″ and 324lbs O’Neal was one of the tallest and heaviest players ever, joining six teams over his 19-year career. Following his time at Louisiana State University, he was drafted by the Orlando Magic as the first overall pick in the 1992 NBA draft. He quickly became one of the best centers in the league, winning Rookie of the Year in 1992–93 and leading his team to the 1995 NBA Finals. After four years with the Magic, O’Neal signed as a free agent with the Los Angeles Lakers. They won three consecutive championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002. O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, winning his fourth NBA championship in 2006. He went on to play with the Phoenix Suns, the Cleveland Cavaliers, and the Boston Celtics.

O’Neal’s individual accolades include the 1999–2000 MVP award, the 1992–93 NBA Rookie of the Year award, 15 All-Star game selections, three All-Star Game MVP awards, three Finals MVP awards, two scoring titles, 14 All-NBA team selections, and three NBA All-Defensive Team selections. He is one of only three players to win NBA MVP, All-Star game MVP and Finals MVP awards in the same year (2000). He ranks 8th all-time in points scored, 6th in field goals, 15th in rebounds, and 8th in blocks. Largely due to his ability to dunk the basketball, O’Neal also ranks third all-time in field goal percentage. O’Neal was elected into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2016, and elected to the FIBA Hall of Fame in 2017.

In addition to his basketball career, O’Neal has released four rap albums, with his first, Shaq Diesel, going platinum. He is also an electronic music producer, and touring DJ, known as DIESEL. He has appeared in numerous films and has starred in his own reality shows, “Shaq’s Big Challenge” and “Shaq Vs.” Currently he hosts “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” is the general manager of Kings Guard Gaming of the NBA 2K League, and is a sports analyst on the television program “Inside the NBA on TNT.”

Last year O’Neal, in partnership with JCPenney, launched his Big & Tall fashion line. To promote the brand he joined top model agency Wilhelmina Models to create the first-ever big and tall model search, “Shaquille O’Neal’s Big & Tall Model Search presented by JCPenney.”

According to The NPD Group, a third of American men today identify as either big, tall, or big and tall, representing 10% of the U.S. menswear business. Yet, when O’Neal launched his tailored clothing line, Shaquille O’Neal XLG, exclusively at JCPenney in 2018, it was a challenge to find big and tall men to model the collection, forcing Wilhelmina to hit the streets to find men that fit the bill.

Aimee Lakotas, Sr. Marketing Director at JCPenney, Shaquille O’Neal, JCPenney’s Big & Tall Style Ambassador, Jessica Rosenberg, Director of Wilhelmina Titan Division, David Carter, Wilhelmina Titan Model, and Model Search winner Chukwukere Ekeh participate in a panel.

HOMBRE: Why did you create a Big & Tall fashion line?
Shaquille O’Neal: I’m a businessman but I didn’t want the line to be about me. I didn’t do this line only to make money, I did it because it’s 2020 and guys need to be fresh. I’m 47 years old and for a long time for me to look like this I had to pay a lot of extra money. I wanted to be the guy at the forefront of this Big and Tall movement.

Shaquille O’Neal with Jessica Rosenberg, Director of Wilhelmina Titan Division,

H: How did the idea for a model search come about?
SO: I didn’t want to be the only one representing the brand. It’s not about me, it’s about the movement. The movement of these guys having fresh cool stuff at an affordable price. I’m the face but I didn’t want to be in every advertisement. I’ve never seen a big guy model. So I reached out to Wilhelmina (Models) to do a model search for my line.

Model Search winners Ricardo Vichot, Jordan Alexander Cochran and Chukwukere Ekeh model alongside Shaq in New York City

H: How satisfied are you with the results so far?
SO: It’s good. We’re selling out, online sales are good, guys look great, they feel great. It feels good for me to be out and hear ‘Hey I bought your suit,’ or ‘Hey I got your shirt.’ It’s a good feeling for big people to know someone cares about them. All the fashionable stuff, all the Louis (Vuitton) and the Gucci, they don’t care about us. If they had Big and Tall Gucci or Louis I’d buy all that myself. But they don’t care about it so I’m going to bring that style to us.

H: What made you decide to partner with JCPenney in the first place?
SO: I started out with Macy’s, but I didn’t think it through. I just came out with a suit line for guys your size (regular sizing). And then I thought, this is not going to work. There’s a lot of long and fashionable guys.  I decided to do a Big and Tall line and throw suits in there.

H: How do you see the line evolving?
SO: We’ll have suits, jeans, shirts, shorts, sportswear, underwear. Fashion is always changing so every quarter we have to come out with something new. Summer, winter, fall, spring.

H: How involved are you with the line?
SO: What makes me smart is I let the experts do what they do. For example, if I’m gonna run a magazine you’re going to be my guy. I let you do what you do. I read it, I look at it, I proof it, I give my suggestion, and then we go from there. I’m not a designer, so I hire designers. I know marketing and I know certain things, but I’m grateful to have JCPenney.
I realize that to win a championship you have to have a team and you have to have a team concept. I have designers and I  go ‘yes’ and ‘no.’ Then I bring in other people,  then I ask my girlfriend, ‘You like this suit?’ Alright let’s do it. I have a lot of people on the team.

H: With so much success in different fields, what keeps you motivated?
SO: What keeps me motivated is for my children to look at me the same way I looked at my dad. My dad didn’t have much. He was a drill sergeant and he was a fabulous man. My mom was a secretary, she was a fabulous woman.

My kids – and when I say my kids it’s everybody’s kids. I want them to say, ‘If he did it I can do it. I’m proud of him, I want to be like that.’
I realize I have a social responsibility to always do the right thing and say the right thing. I want people to realize we’re all from the same place.  I was just like you, I wasn’t better than you, I wasn’t worse than you. I was just like you, this is how I became successful, you can do it too.

H: You mentioned your parents and their influence, what’s the best advice they gave you?
SO: That’s a great question.
Be a leader and not a follower, and never give up. It’s so simple. When I talk to children they go ‘For real?,’ and I say yea, that’s all they said. I wasn’t the smartest guy in class, I had a stuttering problem. I wasn’t the best athlete. My mom used to say ‘Baby don’t give up.’ She said, ‘Try harder. I know you stutter but don’t give up. Just take your time when you talk.’ Just simple stuff like that. When you become real successful a lot of people think it was just hard to do such a thing.  You have to be a leader, not a follower.
Don’t be going out with those dudes, smoking weed, and sticking up liquor stores. Be a leader. And never give up.
Because my parents told me that constantly, time in and time out, I’m very very successful.

H: Following up on that, what are other keys to success?
SO: The key to success is never be satisfied. Another key is utilize your teammates. For example, you look at the Brooklyn Bridge, at night it’s so beautiful, but what about the legs? Nobody ever talks about what holds the Brooklyn Bridge up. So although I’m successful I have a lot of smart people around me. You see all those people out there, all those people work for me. I have a lot of people that are smarter than me that work for me. The key to success is having great teammates, utilizing your teammates, and never being satisfied.

Shaquille O’Neal photographed exclusively for HOMBRE by Jaime Pavon – All photos (except archival photos)

Shaquille O’Neal with HOMBRE Magazine’s Francisco Romeo