There's no denying that Shaquille O'neal is and was the most dominant center to ever play the game of professional basketball. No matter who he faced throughout the prime of his career, teams had no way to stop him from entering the paint and flushing down a forceful dunk over his opponents. Shaq was originally drafted first overall by the Orlando Magic in the 1992 NBA Draft. He spent four seasons with the Florida franchise before signing a contract with the Los Angeles Lakers where he would become a household name and legend forever.
Shaq won three consecutive NBA Championships with the Lakers alongside Kobe Bryant from 2000-2002, all three years in which he received NBA Finals MVP before falling out with Bryant and the franchise and taking his talents to Miami where he won his fourth and final NBA title in 2006. It's hard to believe Shaq has only won one MVP Award which was in 2000 but has a long list of accolades that help him sleep well at night. To this very day, Shaq is everywhere from commercials to television as an analyst on Inside The NBA on TNT.
When we think of inventors, the image that comes to mind is usually that of a frazzled scientist toiling away in a lab, not celebrities pulled from the pages of Us Weekly. However, a number of well-known public figures hold patents for various innovations. Some are related to the work that made them famous, while others are offshoots of hobbies or just a single great idea.
Part of guitar wizard Eddie Van Halen's signature sound was his two-handed tapping technique, but letting all ten fingers fly while simultaneously holding up the guitar's neck could get a bit tricky. Van Halen came up with a novel way to get around this problem, though; he invented a support (top) that could flip out of the back of his axe's body to raise and stabilize the fretboard so he could tap out searing songs like "Eruption." While Van Halen was obviously interested in improving his guitar work, the patent application he filed in 1985 notes that the device would work with any stringed instrument. Want to tap out a scorching mandolin solo? Find someone selling Eddie's device.
It’s probably not surprising that James Cameron—who designed a submersible to take him to the deepest known part of the ocean—will often invent technology to make his films if what he needs doesn’t exist. He holds a number of patents, including US Patent No. 4996938, “apparatus for propelling a user in an underwater environment,” that he and his brother, Michael, created to film The Abyss and patented in 1989. The device is basically an underwater dolly equipped with propellers that makes it easy for a camera operator to maneuver in the water—and allowed Cameron to capture the shots he wanted for the 1989 film, part of which was filmed in an abandoned nuclear reactor.
In 1987 Jamie Lee Curtis designed and patented a disposable diaper that included a waterproof pocket that held baby wipes. She hasn't profited from her idea yet, though, since she refuses to license the patent until diaper companies make biodegradable products.
You know him as a rock legend, but Neil Young also loves trains—so much that he owns a stake in a model train manufacturing company and has an extensive collection. He also holds seven patents related to model trains, including Patent No. US5441223, "Model train controller using electromagnetic field between track and ground."