“You don’t have to create any image for Shaq,” says O’Neal’s agent, Leonard Armato, the, er, Shaq flak. “He’s a superhero who doesn’t need special effects.” Well, maybe just a few. This year Reebok will spend upwards of $20 million, last year’s Dan-and-Dave money, advertising its new Shaq Attaq shoe and apparel line. The opening commercial, which debuted during the Super Bowl telecast, features Shaq entering the exclusive domain of such Hall of Fame centers as Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain, grown men who could only marvel at the youngster’s net worth.
The possibilities are endless: What kind of book bag does your kid carry? A Shaq Saq. And where does he work out? On a Shaq Traq. And where do you buy lingerie? At the Love Shaq.
O’Neal apparently commands so much clout in the marketplace that he may actually achieve today’s corporate cliche, synergy. Every product he sells or endorses-from shoes to action toys to video games-will carry the SHAQ logo. Every product sells Shaq. Armato says this differs from how Michael Jordan has a discrete image for each product line. For Nike, he flies as Air Jordan, taking feeds from Bugs Bunny or Spike Lee. For Gatorade, he’s just the big boy next door-“Be Like Mike”-with no cross-reference to his Air ware. Says Armato, “You don’t want to go out and do 55 different things that dilute the specialness of what you have here.”
What you have here, according to Shaq himself, is “a big man who on the court is mean, dunking, battling, run-at-ya, while off the court I’m a nice, friendly guy with a very pretty smile.” On the court, he’s averaging about 24 points, 15 rebounds and 4 blocked shots per game and will likely start the All-Star game ahead of Dream Teamer Patrick Ewing. Off court, Shaq feeds the homeless on Thanksgiving, hands out toys on Christmas and passes out tickets to kids who promise to attend school.
O’Neal may be the first NBA seven-footer to make it really big off the court. Wilt Chamberlain once groused, “Nobody loves Goliath,” and indeed big men from Wilt to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to the estimable David Robinson have had limited commercial appeal. But Shaq comes off as the gentle giant-soft-spoken, personable and unfailingly polite. He even calls reporters “mister,” which by NBA standards is shocking (or shoqing). “What makes Shaq so attractive is the combination of this dominant and dramatic on-court presence and this gentle off-court personality,” says Jack Lacey, of Spalding Sports Worldwide, which signed him up for five years before the season opened.
O’Neal arrived in the NBA at a propitious moment. With the retirement of Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, there is a void big enough for a 300-pounder to fill. Reebok had been desperately seeking a superstar to battle Nike with its Dream Team-laden roster and dominant market position. It scoured scouting reports on everything from Shaq’s basketball ability to his family background to his 20EEE shoe size. “He was a natural,” says Reebok Sports president, Roberto Muller, who signed up O’Neal for five years at an estimated $10 million to put the first syllable of his name on their shoes.
Did someone say enough already? It has only just begun. O’Neal now includes commercial plugs in his postgame comments. In L.A., describing one momentous dunk, he said, “I thought I was Reebok on that play. Above the rim.” In Boston, commenting upon Robert Parish’s rainbow jump shot, O’Neal noted, “It’s a shot that can’t be blocked by the Shaq Attaq.” No doubt his Reebok rhyme-“Don’t fake the funk on a nasty dunk”-will be heard by even a cloistered monk.
But here’s the real question: when will Radio Shack sign him up, too?
