Patrick Martin went to Best Buy on Jonesboro Road to buy a laptop Wednesday. He left with the best one in the store, but he didn’t pay for it.
That’s because Shaquille O’Neal did.
Martin posted on Facebook that he and “Mo” ran in to the retired NBA star and offered condolences for both O’Neal’s sister, Ayesha Harrison-Jex, who died in October 2019 and for O’Neal’s former teammate Kobe Bryant.
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Martin said O’Neal then told them, “I like yall, so get the nicest one in here and I’ll pay for it.” From the photo posted on Facebook, it appears Martin got a Microsoft Surface.
The McDonough resident’s generosity is well-known not just in Atlanta but across the country.
Yesterday, O’Neal announced proceeds from this year’s Super Bowl Fun House event will go to the families of those who died in Sunday’s helicopter crash that killed Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others.
“I'll be dedicating and donating all my proceeds from Friday nights Fun House to all the families who lost loved ones and to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation,” O’Neal wrote. “Together we will celebrate all those who lost their lives in Sundays tragedy. RIP my brother, my friend and my homie, The Black Mamba. Until we meet again.”
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This past October, O’Neal bought a house for Isaiah Payton, the 12-year-old who was shot outside a football stadium in southeast Atlanta, after hearing the boy couldn’t leave the hospital until he had a wheelchair-accessible home.
When a 13-year-old Forest Park boy accidentally fatally shot himself in 2017, O'Neal paid for the funeral. He also financed the funerals of a 7-year-old shooting victim in Houston and of a Clayton County mother who was shot and killed outside a high school graduation.
And when a 6-foot-11-inch, 275-pound homeless man need help, O'Neal and former Hawks star Dikembe Mutombo donated shoes and clothing.
O'Neal is also national spokesman for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and participated in the nonprofit's campaigns for 15 years.
