At SMU, Shaquille O'Neal's wisdom comes with a DJ set

Vibe check: Shaq, sports content creator Jenna Bandy and Credit One Bank chief marketing officer Michael Coleman explained how "good credit scores open doors" and encouraged students to start building their scores immediately.

• The speakers played trivia with the students and answered their questions before Shaq ended the night as DJ Diesel, another one of his side quests.

What they're saying: "When I was young, it was all about jewelry and cars, stuff that I didn't need, and I wasted so much money," Shaq told Axios before the event. Now that he is out of the NBA and a father, he has more perspective.

• "I want them [my children] to understand that we're not rich — I'm rich," he told the SMU crowd.

Pro tip: Missed credit card payments can lower credit scores, along with maxing out on credit lines or closing older credit card accounts, Coleman said.

The intrigue: Fourth-year SMU film student Zariyah Perry worked up the courage to ask the panelists how she can address a line of credit she took to fund a documentary project about her late grandfather, who she says helped expand the Nation of Islam and mentored Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali.

• Shaq ended up promising Perry — a Booker T. Washington grad raised by a single mom — $10,000 to help pay down her loan.
• "This is going to change my life, to walk away from college close to debt free," Perry told Axios afterward. "I don't even have the words."

The bottom line: "I love you, SMU. Remember: Never miss a payment," Shaq told the college students while mixing a rap song about fame and wealth.