Shaq Refused A Starbucks Deal Because 'Black People Don't Drink Coffee'

Shaq always had great moves on the court, but after this story, it's hard not to question his moves in the boardroom.

Shaquille O'Neal, aka "The Big Aristotle," was apparently a big dummy during one important meeting with Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz -- at least that's the way the former NBA All Star painted the picture.

On the first episode of "In Depth with Graham Bensinger," which premieres this weekend, Shaq told the story of how that meeting went. He reportedly said,

So Howard comes and says, 'Shaq, I wanna give you the opportunity to go in with me and open up these Starbucks franchises in African American communities'... So I looked in the great Howard Schultz's face and said, 'Black people don't drink coffee, sir. I don't think it's gonna work.'

Shaq was dead serious and, as Yahoo! News' Chris Yuscavage notes, O'Neal told this story before in his book, "Shaq Uncut," in which he wrote,

The truth was, I'd never seen black people drink coffee. I thought it was a white person's drink.

No one knows for sure how much money that deal would be worth today, but it's Starbucks, and black people do indeed drink coffee, so I'll make a conservative guess and say a lot.

Shaq told Bensinger,

You should have seen his face. He was like… alright. We're still good friends today, but that was one of my worst business decisions.

Just one of the worst? At this rate, I can't wait to hear the stories behind the others.

Citations: Shaq Missed Out on Making Millions of Dollars With Starbucks Because He Didn't Think Black People Drank Coffee (Yahoo! News)