Widely regarded as one of the world’s most dominant athletes, Shaquille O’Neal is probably the most gregarious personality in Basketball history. He has an autobiography (Shaquille Talks Back) and preserves a web presence for his worldwide fan base using his image as basketball’s great jokester, but we aren’t talking about his career today.

We are discussing the philanthropic aims of Shaq, who has done a lot of work for people all around the world throughout his NBA career and during retirement.

Shaq has said he plans to launch a new children’s hospital in Baton Rouge, LA that would be completely free. Whoa!!

From Cody Worsham for Tiger Rag (via SLAM):

It was a spur of the moment declaration from Dr. O’Neal, who was addressing the media ahead of his induction into the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 29.

“I wasn’t supposed to announce this, but I’m going to do it anyway,” Dr. O’Neal said. “I had a talk with the powers that be in Baton Rouge, and my plan is to build a Shaquille O’Neal children’s hospital. That’s my plan, so that right now is in the works, and hopefully it gets done. ”

Dr. O’Neal said the idea has been discussed for two years, and his goal is to join with Our Lady of the Lake “to build the biggest, freest hospital in the state of Louisiana.”

“All sick children can come for free,” he said. “That’s my vision.” […]

Dr. O’Neal’s announcement couldn’t come at a better time for Louisiana. Faced with budget shortfalls, the state has cut funding to hospitals by $260 million dollars in recent years, according to testimony by House Speaker Chuck Kleckley during the legislative session in May.

Such funding cuts have led Gov. Bobby Jindal — who has continued to reject federal Medicaid expansion that would provide the state more immediate dollars under the Affordable Care Act, citing the law’s inflexibility — to seek private sources of funding for many of the state’s public hospitals.

Naturally, it takes a lot of time and money to build a hospital, but if anyone can do something for the children in Baton Rouge, it would be this big man with a bigger heart!

Many believe Shaq was influenced by a father with a military background, Shaquille has made public service the other part of his life, and his contributions to society range from donations to organizations and charities across the United States to working part-time as a police office in Miami, Los angels, and phoenix, but it is believed this would be his first venture into free hospital support for children.

Here’s to hoping Shaq can pull of the St. Jude’s Children Research Hospital inspired model to help the children of the Baton Rouge area.

Source, Cody Worsham for Tiger Rag (via SLAM):