In 2023, Shaquille O’Neal was appointed as the president of Reebok Basketball. He was joined by fellow NBA legend and former Philadelphia 76ers star Allen Iverson, who was appointed vice president.
O’Neal retired from the NBA in 2011 after winning four championships across his career. Since then, he has taken to entrepreneurship, running several businesses. In his role as Reebok president, he has been tasked with leading the brand’s resurgence in the basketball market.
One of his earliest moves was to sign Angel Reese as a brand ambassador for the company. He played a role in Reese opting to sign a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with the company while she was attending LSU.
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Reebok made the announcement in addition to releasing the Reese collection of sneakers and sportswear. O’Neal subsequently welcomed the LSU star to the team, saying, “For my first appointment in this role, it had to be the goat. There is no one making a bigger impact on the game right now than Angel Reese.”
Now that she is with the Chicago Sky, her relationship with the brand has progressed as she now has her own Reebok collection.
O’Neal also brought his son, Shareef, an NBA G League Ignite player, to Reebok to help him with the company’s designs and in signing players. He tapped his son at a time when he was considering playing professionally in Australia.
Shareef said he felt he owed it to O’Neal to remain in the U.S. after the sacrifices his father made for the family. Speaking on a podcast, he noted that he took a break from professional basketball to help his father at Reebok.
“Basically, my job for Reebok right now is bringing in the culture, connecting the culture to Reebok. So, I took a year from playing professionally. I still work all the time, but seeing all the things my dad has done for me, I wasn’t going to go to Australia to be 16 hours away from my family when they were just holding me down from the past however many years.”
He noted that things are going well at Reebok, and he believes the company will soon be more competitive in the market.
“We’re doing a really good job right now, and I say by the time 2025 starts, Reebok will be up there with the rest of these brands, and I’m glad I can contribute with that, and yeah, basically, I’m just the guy in there who’s telling them, Oh, these are the trends now; these are the brands that we should try to go for; these are the players we should go for, so I’m glad that he trusted me,” he explained.
