Shaq Wanted The First iPhone For Ultimate Bragging Rights—So He Called Steve Jobs: 'Stevie Baby, it's Shaqy…' But Jobs Told Him No

Shaquille O'Neal didn't just want an iPhone—he wanted the first one. Before the press, before the celebrities, before the world.

But even being a four-time NBA champion with global fame and a tech obsession couldn't get him ahead of Apple's notoriously secretive rollout in 2007. So what did he do? He pulled some strings, got Steve Jobs' personal number, and called—a lot.

"Stevie baby, it's Shaqy—can I get one of those iPhones?" he recalled asking. But Jobs wouldn't cave. "He said, ‘Shaq, I can't, I can't, I can't,'" O'Neal recounted speaking to Mashable at SXSW in 2013. "I got a lot of celebrities calling me… you gotta wait, Shaq."

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This wasn't a one-time ask. Shaq was relentless. He wanted the first iPhone not just because it was cool, but because, as he put it, "when you're at the forefront of stuff, it's like bragging rights."

In a 2012 interview with Fast Company, he gave more context—and a little more heart. "I always wanted to be the one that's on the edge of the technological curve," he said. And when the iPhone was about to drop, he did what any certified tech nerd with a rolodex full of Silicon Valley contacts would do: he called in the favor. Over and over.

"The great Steve Jobs, rest in peace," Shaq said at the time. "When the iPhone was first coming out, I used to call him every other day. Can I please get one first? He never gave me one. He was a great guy."

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The way Shaq tells it, you get the sense he wasn't even annoyed. In fact, he seemed to respect Jobs even more for sticking to his guns.

Shaq's not just a tech dabbler—he's a full-on enthusiast. "I'm a nerd, I'm a techie, I'm a geek," he proudly declared in a 2013 Bloomberg interview. "All those terms we thought were funny are now in—and I'm proud to say I'm in."

And he meant it. In 2015, Shaq invested in Ring, the smart doorbell company, after installing one himself and becoming a fan. He didn't stop at writing a check—he appeared in commercials and even went door-to-door helping install units in Georgia homes. When Amazon later acquired Ring in a reported $1 billion deal, Shaq's bragging rights became even more legit.

He also backed Oura, the smart ring that tracks sleep, recovery, and readiness scores. Because for a guy who's lived life at full throttle, it turns out the tech that monitors rest might be just as valuable as the tech that gets people hyped.

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While basketball thrives on fierce competition, Shaq says the tech world operates on a completely different vibe. "In the basketball world, it's, ‘This is mine, and you can't have it,'" he explained. "But in tech, everybody's helping each other out. Kudos to the techie guys for everybody just having handshake deals." He went on to say there's more than enough innovation and opportunity to go around. "There's enough technology and enough dream space for everybody to survive," he added.

So no, Shaq never got that iPhone early. But he did get the last laugh—by diving headfirst into the tech world, not as a brand ambassador, but as a true geek with bragging rights of a different kind.

Because it's not just about being first. It's about being in. And on that front, Shaq's already won.

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