Having already shed fifty pounds, The Big Aristotle is focused on achieving an eight-pack of abs.

This photo was taken in the first week of November in the front yard of Shaquille O’Neal’s 8,600-square-foot home in the Atlanta, Georgia, region. Over the course of his more than ten years in the metro Atlanta region, Shaq has spent almost four of those years in his current residence. Shaq’s many monikers are referenced in the Superman logo that is displayed on a black, iron-clad fence that guards the 30-acre estate. There are several locations for this insignia, including the front entry and the front of a detached garage that has been converted into a gym. From the street, there’s a massive gorilla statue and a massive, rusty contraption that looks like basketball hoops.

It isn’t particularly secret who resides here.

Usually when Shaq doesn’t want to talk, he whispers during interviews, but in this case, I can hear his deep voice above the grass as he asks me to repeat my age. I am not, in any sense, 29. Considering that I’m just four feet eleven inches tall, I’m accustomed to people being fixated on how young I seem. I didn’t anticipate Shaq being this enamored with it, even still. After I informed my mother where I was going for the interview, she said, “I know you don’t like taking pictures at work, but please get a photo of you two standing together.” Before I could ask, Shaq tells one of his colleagues to use his phone to take a picture of us. He smiles and says he wants to look like he’s dropping his daughter off at school. Holding my hand and grinning for the photo, the seven-foot-one NBA legend dons matching gym shorts and a black tank top.

My whole body is as big as his leg. Looking back at the photo, I can see that guy saying, just as a school bus drove by, “Anybody mess with you, li’l Jewel, I’ll fuck them up.” As we head back to the house, it’s clear that he is still contemplating how little I am. In reference to the height of the shortest woman he has ever dated, he says, “My record is four-nine.” “Anyone who dates me is lucky,” he continues, noting that “I’ll still look young even in my 40s.”

In November 2021, Shaquille O’Neal was photographed in his 30-acre backyard located outside of Atlanta. Andrew Hetherton: I didn’t visit Shaq’s mansion to discuss my potential appearance in ten years. I’m taking a leisurely stroll around his property to observe how the ex-athlete perceives himself. I pass by the tree house and cross the backyard, where he intends to build a dirt bike trail in the future.

What is the approaching-50-year-old Shaq’s opinion on fitness and health, considering that his profession has always made the world scrutinize his physique? What adjustments to his priorities is he making? What’s the process of growing older for someone who is known for being a big kid? When Shaq was younger, his aspirations included becoming a basketball champion, a TV personality, and a successful rapper and DJ. He has accomplished much more than this, though.

These days, his work extends beyond his analysis of TNT’s Inside the NBA. He also owns several fast-food chains, produces the animated short film Headnoise about anxiety, spins as an EDM DJ under the name Diesel, and may be the best athlete in America who turned into a pitchman, pushing everything from printers and Papa John’s to insurance and Icy Hot. Shaq often announces new collaborations and ends current ones, so it’s hard to keep track of how many brands he promotes. His estimated net worth is $400 million.

Shaq has gone beyond his sporting fame to become a beloved public figure, even in an era when racial division in America is at an all-time high. Shaq’s honesty may have contributed to his appeal, as former NBA player and journalist Kenny Smith of Inside the NBA points out. Shaq, according to Smith, is “unapologetic about who he is.” He embraces his grandeur, his uniqueness, and his flaws. It doesn’t bother him to acknowledge that he is bigger than other people. He makes the rare decision to accept who he is. You’d want to have a drink with Shaq regardless of your disagreements with his comments or conduct most of the time. But it would probably have to be free of booze. Shaq isn’t much of a drinker.

When he was thirteen, his Army sergeant adoptive father saw him drinking beer and made him stop. Hasn’t really touched the items since. SHAQ, a man renowned for his ability to flip between serious and humorous, philosophical and (willfully) ignorant sentences, tells me, in a serious tone, that he’s been thinking a lot about what actor and comedian Deon Cole says in his Cole Hearted Netflix special from 2019. Cole demands a ruckus from everyone over forty. Then, as the crowd begins to thin out, he makes one succinct speech reminding everyone present of their mortality.

He tilts his head and widens his eyes, saying, “You have thirty summers left.” Cole later clarified the comment, which he then utilized as a hashtag on Twitter. When I say there are 30 summers left, it’s not with the intention of killing. Though his memory is a little fuzzy, Shaq recalls this event vividly. “I mean, I have 30 summers left to live a vibrant, energetic life doing whatever I want,” he posted on social media. Shaq remembers Cole saying they had 15 summers left, and Cole turns 50 a few months before Shaq does. “I’ll be 65 [in] 15 summers,” declares Shaq.

I never really thought about it until he said, “I’ll be a fucking old man.” Of all, you may still be “vibrant and energized” at 65, even though your idea of that may differ from Shaq’s. Speaking of energy, Shaq has been working out at home lately and burning a lot of calories. Over the course of the pandemic, his weight steadily rose to over 415 pounds. (His playing weight was 325 pounds.)

Now, he works out for over an hour four days a week, including 40 minutes of rigorous muscle training and 20 minutes of tough cardio. He wants to lose 35 pounds, tone up to the point where he can “go topless,” and take an absurd number of pictures for Instagram before turning 50 in March. He continues by saying that he wants to be as fit as possible so that his belly won’t show through his belt. He refers to it as “OTBB,” or “over-the-belt Barkley,” and he wants to avoid becoming one of those individuals. (This is obviously a jab at his friend and colleague Charles Barkley from Inside the NBA; the two get into arguments all the time about a lot of different things, like their weight.)

Shaq training: The Andrew Hetherton About two years ago, Shaq was trying to avoid this and sustain his energy and stamina when he scheduled his first-ever medical appointment. When he says this, I ask him to say it again so I know I heard him correctly. Had Shaq never seen a doctor prior to now? At any moment? Indeed, he responds. Until recently, Shaq has only visited the doctors that gave care to him while he was a professional athlete.

According to him, the doctor had given him a list of things he needed to improve. In an attempt to be “slim” and “presentable,” Shaq claims he started taking drugs, but he soon discovered another problem. As an NBA player who survived off of McDonald’s burgers or “a turkey club sandwich with extra mayo and two pineapple drinks,” he would have to cut back on his eating. Everything halted when I started taking a vitamin made by a rival. I mean, everything. He gets more serious with each enticing statement and says, “Nothing was working.”

“Always the enterprising guy, Shaq started to wonder how many other men in their 40s would benefit from a new type of supplement. It was for this reason that he began endorsing Novex Biotech’s GF-9 diet pill in early 2021, working with the firm. On the supplement’s website, which also boasts that a clinical trial “increase[s] mean, serum (blood) growth hormone levels by 682%,” you can find Shaq’s endorsement and before and after pictures.

Shaq’s business endeavors in the wellness and fitness space don’t stop there, either. In addition to trying to eliminate soda from his diet, he began promoting Alkaline88, which is advertised as a completely pH-balanced alkaline water enhanced with minerals and electrolytes. Shaq says he doesn’t always follow a perfect diet, despite his current concern with health. He still loves to nibble, but only in small amounts, and still hates vegetables.

The Andrew Hetherton Celebrity endorsement can be risky, especially when working with supplement companies that may promote their goods through exaggerated or deceptive claims that aren’t always backed up by research. Shaq wants to be fit enough to post a topless selfie on Instagram before he turns 50 on March 6, 2022. For example, the Mayo Clinic states that regular water is usually just as healthy as alkaline water, if not more so.

The doctors at Mayo Clinic state that while there is a perception that Shaq supports a lot of companies, he insists that all of them are ones that he sincerely believes in, even though the company’s clinical trial had a very small sample size—just 16 people. “Some dietary supplements that claim to boost levels of HGH come in pill form, but research doesn’t show a benefit,” the doctors say about supplements that promote human growth hormone (HGH), such as those sold by Novex. I can’t say I don’t like a product and then make you think it’s great.

He claims that it’s a poor business choice. That is unethical, and I would never act in that way. Shaq sold the rights to his name brand to Authentic Brand Groups in 2015. I don’t need to steal your money and then deceive people because I have enough money. While Shaq works with many firms, he also declines a “tremendous” number of agreements, according to Nick Woodhouse, the company’s president and chief marketing officer.

He says, “Shaquille is in high demand as a business partner.” “From being one of the greatest NBA centers of all time, he has evolved into one of the greatest businessmen in history.” SHAQ is seated ridiculously in his “office,” which is the island that separates his living room and kitchen. He’s telling me he’s heading to Michaels, a chain craft store, after our interview. His “boom boom room,” a bedroom on the main floor of the house that is now being decorated, has one empty wall that he has to buy something for.

Both the room and the bed’s headboard, which features rhinestones in each of its tufts, are painted black to match. Shaq says he bought the bed by accident, but he also personally embellished the doorframe and the edge of the room with matching single rhinestones. The night before our interview, he bought five clocks and five mirrors for the room from Walmart. When I arrive, they’ve already hanged up, if a little carelessly. There are merely four wooden clocks that fit on the wall above the headboard, and they are all designated with a different time zone. On another wall, over a little rectangular mirror, is the fifth clock.

Photographed by Jason Koerner for Getty Images, January 31, 2021, Miami, FL. Shaquille O’Neal, better known by his stage name DJ Diesel, performs onstage during Shaq’s Fun House at Mana Wynwood Convention Center. Shaq is quick to admit that he still has a lot to learn about interior design (“I’m just learning about modern [versus] traditional,” he adds), but he already knows what the final details will entail. He wants to add laser lights that reflect off the mirrors and a smoke machine so that he may envision himself lying on the bed and having to remain still to avoid being hit by one of the death beams.

It’s just Shaq being Shaq, using his artistic license to make a term that typically has a sexual connotation into something playful. For the record, he says his “boom boom room” is where naps will occur.

He goes back to the kitchen, where he is asked what advice he would give her 30-something partner who is feeling stuck by a Men’s Health producer who is getting ready for a video interview. My advice is to “convince him that you don’t give a damn.” Men care about two things: the rest of you and themselves. If you tell him, “Baby, I love you and I don’t care what you do,” the tension will start to ease, he suggests. When he returns home at night, put it on him after that.

Shaq Superman ArtShaq, who reached 415 pounds during the pandemic, adjusted his diet and shed over fifty pounds. Andrew HethertonShaq says he is asked for guidance by young people a lot, particularly guys. “I’ve made a lot of mistakes, so I have the answers,” he says. In addition, he understands what it’s like to be responsible for providing for a full family, having raised six of his own.

When he’s not offering advice, he gifts gifts to naive strangers. Early in 2021, a video emerged of Shaq purchasing an engagement diamond from a young man who had placed it on layaway. However, Shaq asserts that this happens more often than what is shown on tape.

And there’s usually a mother and a small child involved. Shaq calls his mother Lucille O’Neal, who grew up in Newark, New Jersey, and now resides in Atlanta, “my go-to source of inspiration.” “I try to find her and myself wherever I go.” Recently, he saw a mother and her son at Best Buy, sorting through sales in order to buy a 45-inch television. He paid the bills and purchased a larger television for the family. He saw a woman in Walmart trying to pay off a $500 layaway charge another time, around the holidays. something he attended to as well.

That may help to understand why he keeps putting in so much effort when he says, “That could still be us, and that used to be us.” Shaq’s childhood not only influenced his charitable and financial outlooks, but it also shaped most of his life convictions. The agony of poverty has convinced him that, with a few more business missteps, he might return to putting items on layaway, even for a man who has been affluent for far longer than he was ever in need. He’s never held back when discussing his upbringing with a drill sergeant for a stepfather and other family members who work in law enforcement.

He has resided with Jerome, a family friend, and Jerome has been his bodyguard throughout his career. It’s common knowledge that Shaq has direct touch with the cops. He worked as a reserve officer for the Port of Miami, Los Angeles, and other places. Along with it, he holds accolades as a U.S. deputy marshal. He was sworn in as a deputy in Clayton County, Georgia, in 2016. Currently, he works for the Henry County Sheriff’s Office as a community relations director, planning events like the motorcycle rally “Ride 4 Unity” that happened this past summer.

Shaq asserts that he is aware of how divisive his support for law enforcement has become and adds, “I would love to see the community and law enforcement get back together,” in light of the public’s rising awareness of police violence against African Americans. Shaq says he is stopped by police a lot when he travels outside of the Atlanta metropolitan area, even though he is well-known and serves in the police force. “Believe me, I understand both sides,” he says. He says that once, when he pulled over for gas in Valdosta, Georgia—more than 200 miles away—he saw an officer do a U-turn and approach from behind his vehicle to pull him over. Additionally, he recalls being stopped by an officer who was brandishing a pistol. “What made you take out your gun?I enquired of him.

He said, “I’m sorry.” When I stopped him the previous time, I got into a fight with this big guy. What these people have gone through, you have no idea, it struck me.

NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal speaks at a press conference in McDonough, Georgia, on Friday, January 22, 2021, following his appointment as the director of community relations for the Henry County Sheriff’s Office by Sheriff Reginald Scandrett. Atlanta Journal Constitution via AP January 22, 2021: The new director of community relations for the Henry County Sheriff’s Office, Shaquille O’Neal acknowledges that not everyone shares his opinion and that thinking along these lines can have serious repercussions. Profiling by law enforcement authorities entrusted with protecting and serving Black people may and has had catastrophic results for the Black people who are the subject of such racism.

Unfortunately, Shaq’s experiences being profiled have made him more tolerant of these officers’ conduct rather than alarming him about the potentially lethal implications. Like most things, Shaq’s perspective on this comes from his early years. He stated that he was not raised in a household where racial issues were regularly discussed in his 2011 autobiography Shaq Uncut.

This Black man with black complexion has, nonetheless, always been larger than average. At the age of ten, he already stood six feet four inches tall. Even so, there are limits to Shaq’s law-enforcement goals, even if he continues to work with the Henry County Sheriff’s Office. Perhaps his attitude and attempts to diffuse situations with a smile and a joke have helped him survive in a culture where people can take advantage of his size and make him a prime target. In the next years, he had planned to run for sheriff, but he has since decided against it. He likes Henry County’s current sheriff, Reginald Scandrett, and wants to assist him. Shaq also says, “The climate’s too hot right now.” His background as an Army brat has also shaped his views on mental health. Because my father is in the military, he programs me.

The answer matters to you more than the problems. I’ll stay here until I figure out the problem, whatever it may be. Shaq snaps his finger, giving the impression that the answer is right in front of him. “If I’m unable to solve it, I have to remind myself that things may get worse. Shaq makes things sound easy, but sometimes things happen that even the most positive person can’t explain. Saying that fixes all of my problems. Three months before Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant’s death in 2019, his sister passed away from cancer. He says he’s still having difficulty accepting this.

I had my sister here, and there was a lot of “I’ll call her tomorrow” mentality (one of the first things you see when you go into Shaq’s house is an autographed photo of Bryant jumping into his arms after the duo’s first NBA title). We will discuss tomorrow. We will discuss tomorrow. He bemoans, “I’ll never be able to call her again.

In game four of the Western Conference semi-finals on May 14, 2000, at America West Arena in Phoenix, Arizona, Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant converses with teammate Shaquille O’Neal as they sit out the end of the fourth quarter. The Suns won 117-98. Photo credit should read mike fialaafp via getty images.

Regarding Kobe, he feels the same way. “I saw no sign of Kobe at all. He goes on, “We didn’t text or phone. That is manipulating me. For that, I don’t have an answer. A few days before to our conversation, Snoop Dogg revealed the news of his mother’s passing. “I would never imagine them gone before me.” Shaq, who called himself a “mama’s boy” and was friends with the rapper, began to reflect about his own mother. He still has a strong desire to win her approval and leave a legacy that will make her proud in many ways.

He states, “All I want is for people to think Shaq was a good guy.” “I want them to see someone who, for the most part, acted morally. While I don’t present myself as flawless, I do look out for my family. I cherish people. People are respected by me. Shaq’s second act is far from over, though, because I adore Black ladies. He still believes he has fifteen or thirty Shaqtastic summers left.