Shaquille O’Neal Starbucks Deal: He Thought ‘Black People Don’t Drink Coffee,’ Made Major Business Blunder


Shaquille O’Neal and Starbucks could have been partners a while back, but the basketball star turned down the opportunity. As he explained to Graham Bensinger, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz had approached him with the idea, and he’d turned it down because he didn’t think black people drank coffee.

O’Neal has made many mistakes in the past, including his involvement in what has been called the worst fighting video game of all time. “Shaq” later announced he was going to be part of a sequel to the game, Shaq Fu 2, as previously reported by the Inquisitr. He held a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 to raise money and make it happen.

Apparently the campaign was successful, in spite of what Electronic Arts had called an “abomination” in their game library, according to Kotaku.

Shaquille O’Neal regrets having turned down the Starbucks deal. The Huffington Post says he revealed on In Depth with Graham Bensinger that it was one of his biggest mistakes.

“So my agent called me up and he says, ‘Howard Schultz wants to do business with you. And I’m like, ‘Coffee, eh,’ because growing up, in my household, I’d never seen a black person drink coffee. So it was my thought process that black people didn’t drink coffee.

So Howard [Schultz] comes and says, ‘Shaq, I [want to] give you the opportunity to go in with me and open up these Starbucks franchises in African American communities.’ And I’m always the guy that if I don’t believe in it, [I] can’t do it. No amount of money can make me endorse something that I’m not 100 percent behind.

So I looked at the great Howard Schultz’s face and said, ‘Black people don’t drink coffee, sir, I don’t think it’s going [to] work.’ And you should have seen the look on his face.

Now we’re still good friends today, but that was one of my worst business decisions because now, every time, on every corner in every city, every country, you see a Starbucks … I’m like, ‘Aw.’ “

Shaquille O’Neal gave Starbucks the opportunity to instead work with Earvin “Magic” Johnson, who had bought over 100 franchise locations in the 90s, says the New York Post. Since then, Johnson has sold most of them back, possibly needing the financial backing after his AIDS reveal and subsequent retirement.

Shaq is still a wealthy man, having been a star in the NBA back in the days of Michael Jordan, and even had a short-lived career as a rapper. One of Shaquille O’Neal’s biggest regrets was the Starbucks deal he’d turned down.

[Image via Kevin Winter / Getty Images]

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