Shaquille O’Neal made a major impact on the NBA as a dominant player, and continues to be a prominent figure in the sport of basketball. Whether he’s working as part of the core four on TNT’s Inside the NBA show or helping Mac McClung clinch the Slam Dunk Contest, Shaq is ubiquitous thanks to his incredible size, charisma and amiable personality.
For somebody who was a four-time NBA champion, three-time Finals MVP and 15-time All-Star who continues to have major success in his post-playing career, though, it was quite an admirable showing of vulnerability for Shaq to sit down with Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce to offer retirement advice.
Kelce has a hit New Heights podcast with his brother Travis, has a big personality like Shaq, and is expected to retire from the NFL. What Shaq said to him is revealing and, frankly, kind of sad.
“My advice to you is if you are going to retire, accept it, and enjoy your family, brother. I made a lot of dumb mistakes to where I lost my family, and I don’t have anybody. That’s not the case for you, so enjoy your beautiful wife, enjoy your beautiful kids, and never dwell on what we had.
What we had is what we got. You got the ring, people know who you are. Enjoy it, because again, I was an idiot, and I’ve talked about this a long time. I lost my whole family. I’m in a 100,000 square-foot house by myself. And that’s all I got.”
Shaq has taken blame in the past for his divorce from his ex-wife, Shaunie Henderson. He’s said he works so hard to support his six children.
That’s got to be tough. You could see how somebody like Shaq could succumb to some of the trappings of massive fame. Even with all that Shaq has achieved and continues to achieve, it sounds like he’s still broken up inside about losing his family, knowing that it was all on him, or at least that’s the narrative he’s put out there about it.
There isn’t much more to say about Shaq’s side of this other than that it’s sad. For all the joy he’s brought to millions of other people over the years, he admits to letting down the people who’ve meant most to him in his life. You just hope he has a good support system in his life these days to deal with some of that internal pain.
As for Jason Kelce, he’s married and has three daughters with his wife, Kylie. What’s more — not to jinx anyone’s love story (baby just say yes) — Jason might be the future brother-in-law to Taylor Swift. So that’s kind of neat. I feel like Kelce handles himself extremely well as a famous dude.
I refer to him as a “dude” as a compliment, because he seems not to take himself too seriously and seems to always be down for a good time:
Jason appears to have a strong family unit with his wife, a good relationship with his even more famous brother, and is in Taylor Swift’s orbit. Lots of good, stable support for an exceptional life after a Hall of Fame NFL career.
I think he’ll be just fine, but it never hurts to have positive messaging reinforced by somebody as widely known as Shaq.
Then again, maybe, just maybe, Kelce is going to give it one last ride with the Eagles in 2024. We shall see!
