Hey guys, Willie Geist here with another episode of the Sunday Sit Down podcast. My thanks,

as always, for clicking and listening along this week. My guest is a larger-than-life legend

goes by the name of Shaquille O'Neal. Yes, Shaq. One of the most dominant athletes in the

history of sports, one of the greatest players in NBA history. Let me set the scene for you, as I always like to do.

He lives in rural Georgia, about 45 minutes outside Atlanta,

drive down to the little town where he lives,

go to a spot called PJ's Cafe, restaurant on the town square right there,

hanging out, waiting for Shaq to come in, in and man does he make an arrival comes in

solo but in his jacked up pickup truck and all of seven foot one and three hundred whatever pounds

but kind of rock solid these days big arms just wearing a purple polo shirt and sunglasses

sunglasses for the entire interview i believe and i'll have to check with these Just wearing a purple polo shirt and sunglasses.

Sunglasses for the entire interview, I believe, and I'll have to check with the Sunday Today historian, it's only the second interview that we've done for this Sunday show where the guest has worn sunglasses throughout the other being Ice Cube.

So Ice Cube and Shaq, the two guests wearing sunglasses throughout the interview. We got together and talked business. There was no real peg. Usually you interview

somebody for a show or a movie or a song or an album, whatever it is. Shaq just wanted to talk.

So we sat down, we talked basketball, yes, but to me the most interesting part of the conversation

was his business success.

It's been eight years now since he played his last NBA game. Obviously, you know, he won the three titles with the Lakers.

Later won another one with the Miami Heat. Played in 15 All-Star Games was the NBA rookie of the year, won the MVP Award.

Going back to LSU, he was the college player of the year, won the MVP award. Going back to LSU, he was the

college player of the year, and as you can imagine, he was pretty good in high school, an All-American

there, too. But really, we talked about what he's done since he left the game, and that's

become a crazy successful businessman with restaurants, real estate, car washes, and as one of now the favorite and best-known

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