Shaquille O'Neal signs a 7-year, $120 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
On July 18, 1996, Shaquille O'Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers agreed to what was then the largest contract in the history of sports. The contract was worth $120 million over seven years.telephone poll where 91.3 percent of the callers surveyed did not believe O'Neal was worth those kind of dollars. The Magic's final offer to O'Neal was a 4-year, $54 million pact.The signing was 2 days after a local Orlando paper published a poll saying 91.
O'Neal said it was not about the money. He thought it was time to leave Orlando and move somewhere else. He said being a military child, he was used to a change of scenery every three or four years. "This is going to be one of the hardest decisions of my life, I think I made the right decision," O'Neal said. "It wasn't about money because I just love to play the game. I just want to thank Jerry West and the LA Lakers for giving me a good fair deal. Money was not the main factor here.""I just want to go have fun, be young, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok and have fun," O'Neal said. "I'm just happy to receive a good deal.
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