Shaquille O’Neal has thanked a fan who took a moment to express condolences over Kobe Bryant’s death with a new laptop.
On Wednesday, O’Neal met a fan named Patrick Martin at a Best Buy store in McDonough, Georgia.
According to Martin, who later shared a post about the interaction on Facebook, he was at the store buying a new laptop when he ran into the former NBA star.
“So me and Mo just went to Best Buy to buy a laptop and we meet Shaq,” Martin wrote. “We gave our condolences for his sister and Kobe. We walked off, then Shaq comes to us and says: ‘I like y’all, so get the nicest one in here and I’ll pay for it.’”
In addition to sharing photos of himself shaking hands with O’Neal, and of the new laptop, Martin concluded the post, which has since been shared more than 20,000 times, with the hashtags #RIPAyeshaHarrisonJex #RIPKobe and #MambaMentality.
The act of kindness came after O’Neal vowed to change how he approaches life after Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and seven others died in a helicopter crash on Sunday.
“You don’t really know how long you have left,” O’Neal said on The Big Podcast. “I’m all about being hard and all that but I’m going to have to delete my beef and my confrontation clause. I don’t want to do that anymore.
“I guess I just call all the people I’ve had discrepancies with, and say ‘Look, man, I love you.’”
During the podcast, O’Neal also discussed the loss of his sister Ayesha, who died in October after a battle with cancer.
“I haven't been sleeping after Ayesha's death because [I’m] just not thinking about the good times, but thinking about the times when I could have [done] something or I could have done something different or I could have loved her more or I could have showed her more support,” he said. “And, the same thing hit when I found out this news [about Bryant].”
“This one’s gonna hurt for a long, long time,” he continued. “I just wish he was here. I wish I could say something to him. My heart goes out to Vanessa because she lost two. I have a little brother, but I lost a brother yesterday.”
