Basketball messiah and sugar-loving giant Shaquille O’Neal bought himself a Krispy Kreme doughnut shop in Atlanta. Not only that, he’s the new global ambassador for the company. He made it official this morning.
Ur favorite doughnut just got even HOTTER, baby – I’ve joined the @krispykreme family! #krispykreme#shaq#shaqaliciouspic.twitter.com/pqCVqLyiET
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) October 24, 2016
Kudos to Sportal for this headline:
Legendary NBA center Shaquille O’Neal will now represent a product that has no center.
The Krispy Kreme that Shaq now owns isn’t your run of the mill doughnut outlet. It’s an iconic shop located on Ponce de Leon Avenue that’s been around for six decades — almost as long as Shaq’s been eating doughnuts. Not really. But Shaq’s affection for Krispy Kremes has been well documented over the years.
In 2009, a video showing Shaq having a private moment with a box of Krispy Kreme, set to Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together,” went viral. The video was released to prove that Shaq had enough willpower to lay off his favorite treat and shed some weight for basketball season.
On the reddit thread Shaq Holding Things, Shaq was snapped holding — a Krispy Kreme.
In 2012, Shaq asked Siri to order two boxes of Krispy Kreme for his doughnut-loving comrade, Charles Barkley.
As ESPN notes, this may be Shaq’s redemption for turning down an offer to become the sole franchisee of Starbucks back in the early 1990s.
O’Neill told a reporter last year:
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 gonna work. And you should have seen the look on his face.
Magic Johnson took the offer in Shaq’s stead, later selling his 105 franchises back to the company for more than $70 million. Ouch.
Here’s Shaq getting to know his new family. Nothing brings on the warm and fuzzies quite like a 7-foot tall man on a sugar high.
