Shaquille O’Neal becomes minority owner of Sacramento Kings

Shaquille O’Neal used to torment the Sacramento Kings when he was with the Lakers.

Now the four-time NBA champion is a partial owner of the Kings.

According to Sam Amick of USA Today, O’Neal has purchased a minority stake from owner Vivek Ranadive.

“What interested me in this deal is the new vision, the new Kings, the new everything,” O’Neal said, according to the newspaper. “I’ve always wanted to be something like this.”

O’Neal and the Lakers beat the Kings each year in their three-title run from 2000-02.

“We’re not worried about the Sacramento Queens, not at all,” O’Neal said over a decade ago. “Write it down, take a picture, send it to them -- I don’t care.”

Times have certainly changed.

“We came to a conclusion that we could -- what my (late) friend Steve Jobs likes to say -- put a dent in the universe if Dr. O’Neal became my partner,” Ranadive said. “He’s already had an impact.”

The Kings finished 28-54 last season, 13th in the Western Conference.

“Worst is at the bottom, which means you can’t get no worser,” O’Neal said. “There’s no such thing as worser, which means we can only get better. And we will get better. Once that new arena comes, once that new downtown is up, once we have a conversation with the players and get everybody to step up, they’ll be knocking on the door.”

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Email Eric Pincus at eric.pincus@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter @EricPincus.