Shaquille O’Neal is no stranger to headlines, especially when it comes to his love life. He was spotted leaving dinner with social media influencer Brittany Renner on last week in Los Angeles. Then, screenshots of him sending messages to Ariana Josephine Cossie, also known as the “Home Depot girl,” were shared by her but fans took it as O’Neal attempting to slide into her DMs.
Shaq Dedicated To Uplifting the Community
Cossie went viral on last week after she made a post saying how older men always give her compliments and tell her she is too pretty to be working at a regular job like Home Depot. Social media encouraged her to start an OnlyFans account and she said no because of her strong religious beliefs. The OnlyFans community took it as a personal shot at their profession and Cossie’s good viral moment quickly turned sour.
Several people on social media chose to take shots at Cossie and took it as far as to share her home address and other personal information. O’Neal sent her an uplifting message on Instagram.
“Don’t let them peopl bother u,” O’Neal wrote.
Cossie replied, “Thank You Shaq!!!”
O’Neal next two messages is what got social media buzzing.
“Don’t read the comments stuff like that will drive you crazy,” he wrote. “Have a great day tell all your boyfriends I said hello lol.”
O’Neal and Cossie both set the record straight by telling social media that is was just uplifting words and nothing more.
“Shaq just uplifting people that’s what the diesel do baby I uplift people google me,” he wrote in response to DJ Akademiks.
Always A Big Help
O’Neal is absolutely correct when he said he always tries to uplift the community. In April, he sent shoes to teenage boy that struggled with finding sneakers to fit. O’Neal sent 14-year-old Eric Kilburn five pairs of size 23 shoes and called him personally to tell inform the teenager of the good news.
In 2015, O’Neal sat down with Graham Bensinger to explain how he always help people even when no one is looking.
“Like I tell people all the time, I do a lot of stuff seen and unseen. Like, it doesn’t matter to me if you know I just feed 10,000 homeless folks…..I am doing this because this is what I was taught,” O’Neal said to Bensinger.
In 2022, O’Neal partnered with TNT to start a show called “The Game Plan.” The concept of the show is to shine light on small businesses and their owners in the Atlanta area. So, the backlash from social media was unwarranted, because he has always helped out the community.
