Shaq and Dwyane Wade warn the Next Generation

Shaquille O’ Neal and Dwyane Wade were once teammates on the Miami Heat, and actually won a championship together as a dynamic duo. With Wade bringing up the ball at shooting guard, and O’ Neal there to dunk it down hard, it was nearly impossible to stop this pair.

Although from the beginning of their respective careers they each had the same underlying problem, money. As many NBA players, they grow up with next to nothing and beat the odds to bring themselves and their family out of poverty. However, as it happens with other people, getting millions of dollars out of nowhere causes you to purchase everything you have ever wanted.

This natural inclination caused these players, among many others, to spend their newfound fortunes almost immediately. Luckily for Shaquille O’ Neal and Dwyane Wade, they lasted long enough in the league to realize their spending habits were an issue before completely blowing their fortune, or putting themselves again in misery.

Many others, as seen in Delonte West’s experience, are not so lucky, they spend their fortune and lose their job, leaving them to return to the same position they had started in prior to the league, in poverty stricken areas.

Wade and O’ Neal are in the news now to use their fame to educate young men about budgeting and using their money wisely. These two stars sat with Daymond John to discuss financial intelligence for the recent Black Entrepreneurs Day. Instead of spending upwards of sixty million dollars, yes that was how much money they blew early on, they matured to educate young African Americans about the importance of money. 

At the end of the day, even if you are not a millionaire, make sure to be smart with your money and learn from the experiences of Dwayne Wade and Shaquille O’ Neal.