Most people’s engagement stories are romantic or at least worth retelling, but not many engagement ring purchase stories are … unless they involve Shaquille O’Neal.
The NBA legend was seen in a Zales jewelry store earlier this week, looking to buy some earrings, when he came upon a man trying to pay for an engagement ring. Eager to help, O’Neal stepped in and footed the bill for the man.
Naturally, video of the sweet moment ended up online and made the rounds on social media.
In an appearance on NBA on TNT the following day, the former basketball player explained why he’d gone to the store and said he’d noticed a guy walk in.
“He was just so shy and he was saying, ‘Hey, how much do I owe to pay off my ring?’ I was like, ‘My man, how much is the ring?’ I’m not going to say the amount, but it’s not much for me,” O’Neal said. “He’s like, ‘Hey man, I can come back in the next month and the next month,’ like layaway, he puts the money down. But I was like, ‘Tell your girlfriend I got it. I’ll take care of it.’”
“At first, he didn’t want to take it,” he continued. “He’s like, ‘I can’t do that, sir.’ So I said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I do it all the time.’ I’m just trying to make people smile, that’s all.”
O’Neal said he didn’t mean for his gesture to go viral on video “because I don’t do it for that,” adding that whenever he leaves the house, he tries “to do a good deed.”
This is far from the first time O’Neal has helped random strangers. Elsewhere in the segment, he shared another quick anecdote of a time when he’d purchased furniture for a woman and her daughter.
And last summer, he pulled over to help people involved in a car wreck in Florida.
A sheriff’s spokesperson told the Gainesville Sun at the time that O’Neal “happened to come upon the accident … so he stopped to see if any aid was needed. Once law enforcement arrived he got in his vehicle and left. He didn’t stand around for any accolades. He was just a good citizen.”
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