Shaquille O’Neal went on Jimmy Kimmel Live on Thursday to talk about a variety of topics, including the unveiling of his new statue at Staples Center, what exactly he meant by his recent flat-Earth comments, and about the time he gave a server an enormous tip.
“When I’m at restaurants, I am a big tipper,” Shaq said. “I like to show people my appreciation, so when they come up to my table, I say, ‘the quicker I get my order, the bigger your tip will be.’ And then the food will come fast, and then when we get ready to leave, I’ll ask them, ‘how much you want’? And the most someone said is $4,000. And I said, okay, no problem.”
That level of gratuity is obviously unsustainable, even for someone of Shaq’s wealth, so Kimmel went on to ask how much on average he gives to someone like a valet, for instance. His response was about $300, which isn’t too shabby for driving someone’s car around the block and putting it in a parking space.
All in all, it’s a much better story than the one Charles Barkley used to tell about Michael Jordan slapping a dollar out of his hand when he tried to give it to a homeless person, or any of the many tales about the notoriously tight-fisted Scottie Pippen, aka “No Tippin’ Pippen.”
