Shaquille O’Neal has entertained millions of people and enjoyed a lucrative post-basketball career since retiring from the NBA. However, with Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce potentially walking away from football, one Hall of Famer had a different kind of advice for another.
O’Neal, 61, retired from the NBA after the 2011 season. He left basketball as one of the all-time greats, winning four NBA championships with three NBA Finals MVPs, 15 All-Star selections and an NBA MVP in 2000. Since leaving the court, he’s become highly successful as an analyst for TNT with other successful ventures in business and media.
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However, with Kelce heavily contemplating retirement after a legendary NFL career, O’Neal offered the future Hall of Fame center a different piece of advice about how to handle what comes next.
During Kelce’s appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq, O’Neal offered him words of wisdom about appreciating retirement and using it to focus on his family. The advice also came with caution about what can happen if a retiring athlete doesn’t take the right approach to their post-playing career.
“My advice to you is if you are going to retire, accept it, enjoy your family, brother. I made a lot of dumbass mistakes to where I lost my family, and I didn’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. Because, again, I was an idiot, and I’ve talked about it a long time. I love my whole family. I’m in a 100,000-square-foot house by myself.”
Shaquille O’Neal’s advice to Jason Kelce ahead of retirement
O’Neal has admitted to being a cheater during his career, repeatedly being unfaithful to his wife whom he has five children with. In the same year he retired from the NBA, O’Neal’s wife divorced him over his infidelity.
Kelce’s personal life has been put under the spotlight over the last year, including the Amazon Prime documentary Watch Kelce which chronicled the Eagles’ 2022 season as Kelce dealt with the physical nature of playing football and competing for a Super Bowl while supporting his family and his then-pregnant wife Kylie as they welcomed their third child.
As the New Heights podcast can attest to, family is incredibly important to Kelce with Kylie even making multiple appearances in episodes and his kids have been overheard during recordings of the podcast. While Kelce likely would’ve been just as committed to his family following retirement, O’Neal’s life experience and advice will certainly serve as a reminder of its importance and how quickly it can all be lost by one’s own decisions.
