Shaq helps pay for a funeral for 11-year-old boy killed in accident

NBA Hall of Fame member Shaquille O’Neal has helped pay for an 11-year-old’s funeral. The boy was a passenger in a fatal car accident earlier this month.

NBA Hall of Fame player, nicknamed Superman, made a heroic donation this month.

Shaquille O’Neal helped pay for the funeral of 11-year-old boy, Keshon Batiste. Batiste passed away in a fatal car accident on April 10, when a car hit a ditch and struck a tree. Trayvon Alexander, 12, also passed away in the incident. Batiste was from Breaux Bridge, LA.

O’Neal, a former LSU Tiger athlete, heard of the incident through his friend Phil Conrad, a former chief deputy at Lafayette Parish Marshal’s office.

While the Alexander family was already covered from insurance, the Batiste family was raising money for their funeral. They did so via GoFundMe raising a little over $3,000 but it wasn’t enough to cover the complete cost of the funeral. When O’Neal saw this on their GoFundMe page, he then sent Conrad the money to help the family reach their goal.

O’Neal “called me and asked me to reach out to the family on his behalf, and get back with him,” Conrad told KLFY. “He’s a big man, and his heart is even bigger.”

After receiving the money from O’Neal, Conrad wrote out a check to the family. O’Neal was also going to cover the cost for the Alexander family but their insurance company beat him to it.

This kind act isn’t the first from O’Neal. In the past, he has created his own shoe brand and kept it at affordable prices for families in need. Making a profit was not his goal. His goal was to make high-quality footwear for all budgets. In O’Neal’s reality show Shaq Life, O’Neal was seen purchasing shoes and a suit for a 13-year-old kid in need.

“I’ve seen a few of his incredible gestures and will admit a time I was brought to tears,” Conrad said of the act.