I know, I know; what on earth could Shaquille O’Neal have possibly been buying to tally up a $70,000 bill at Walmart, of all places?
But it turns out that while attempting to make his outrageous purchase, the basketball legend experienced what it was like to have your credit card declined ... like us regular folks who don’t have $70,000 just sitting around.
Shaq revealed what happened on The Late Late Show With James Corden on Thursday night, casually acknowledging, “I have the biggest purchase in Walmart history—$70,000.”
Needless to say, Corden and model and former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham, who was the night’s other guest, were both astounded that Shaq could spend that much at the retail giant.
It’s because Shaq readily admits that he’s an impatient man, and when he arrived at a new empty apartment in Phoenix after being traded by Miami in 2008, he was not about to slowly acquire his furnishings and trappings. Nope. Ain’t nobody got time for that.
“So 2 or 3 in the morning, I got to go get four or five TVs,” the former NBA star explained. “I’ve got to go get printers. I’ve got to go get laptops. I’ve got to go get appliances, sheets, towels, underwear, T-shirts. So at the end, it was $70,000.”
Big baller that he is, Shaq whips out his credit card, only for it to be declined. What he does next is what all of us have done at some point: He carefully takes out his card, blows on it and cleans it, before reinserting the chip.
“I know I’m not broke,” Shaq said he thought at the time. (Of course you’re not broke; you’re SHAQ.)
Turns out, even American Express, his credit card company, was shook that the star was spending that much in Walmart, of all places.
“So then the American Express security called me [and said], ‘Hey, man. Somebody stole your credit card and they spent $70,000 at Walmart,’” he said. Once Shaq explained that it was, in fact, him trying to make the purchase, his card went through and Shaq went along his merry way with $70,000 worth of goods from Walmart.
Iconic.
Watch The Late Late Show segment below: