Germantown Academy’s Matt Walsh used to ride shotgun with Shaq. Now he owns a New Zealand team playing the Sixers.

Shaquille O’Neal knew the answer but still asked the question: Did Matt Walsh want to take the short way or the long way home from practice?

Walsh was a grade schooler at St. Bede’s in Bucks County when Shaq was shattering backboards in Orlando. He was a high school star at Germantown Academy while O’Neal was winning championships with the Lakers. And now he was a wide-eyed rookie with the Miami Heat sitting in the passenger seat of O’Neal’s SUV. Of course, Walsh wanted to take the long way.

“I would be texting my friends on a Nokia,” Walsh said. “And I would be like ‘Guys, I’m in the car with Shaq. Again.’”

» READ MORE: Sixers leave training camp in the Bahamas with positive vibes and confidence: ‘I think we have it all’

They drove around South Beach, honking the horn and flashing the lights O’Neal had on the roof of his truck since he was an honorary U.S. Deputy Marshal. Walsh, the last man on the roster, was cruising with the biggest star in the NBA. For Walsh, the long way was the only way.

His basketball journey took him from G.A. to the University of Florida, where he played three seasons before leaving early for the NBA. Undrafted, Walsh signed with Miami but was released three months later. He played 10 seasons in Europe, retired when he was 31, and bought a professional basketball team in New Zealand that plays the Sixers on Monday night in a preseason game at the Wells Fargo Center.

“When I bought the team, people thought I was totally insane,” said Walsh, who purchased the New Zealand Breakers in 2017. “The response would be, ‘What the heck is a guy from Philly buying a team in New Zealand for?’ I always laugh about it.”

It only makes sense that the guy who somehow became Shaq’s copilot — “What kind of bizarro land am I living in that I got to drive with Shaq every day?” Walsh said — bought a basketball team in a country he had never visited. Walsh envisioned turning the Breakers, who play in the Australia’s National Basketball League, into a global sports property. He spent time working under Jason Levien, his former agent who owns DC United, and wanted to try his hand in the front office.

“The timing of it was funny because I promised my wife that we were done traveling overseas,” said the 41-year-old Walsh, who played professionally in eight countries. “We had finally settled back in Philadelphia and my wife was six months pregnant. I realized that if I wanted to grow the team, I had to live there. I came home and said, ‘I think we have to move to New Zealand. It was a foreign place to us, but I wouldn’t ask her and my family to move there if it wasn’t an absolutely amazing place and there was an amazing opportunity for us. We went for it.”

» READ MORE: These Philly-area newlyweds joked about crossing paths with the Sixers in the Bahamas. Then, they got to meet Joel Embiid.

Walsh hired one of the top coaches from Europe, invested in the team’s practice facility, and sold a vision to players that the Breakers could be a stepping stone to the NBA. R.J. Hampton, a first-round pick in 2020 by Milwaukee, signed with the Breakers in 2019 instead of going to the University of Kansas. The Breakers have had four players picked in the last five NBA drafts, including two first-rounders.

They reached the championship of the Australian Basketball League in 2023, set attendance records, and spiked advertising revenue after Walsh negotiated a record deal for the jersey sponsor. In August, the Breakers signed Karim Lopez, a 17-year-old from Mexico who is projected to be a top NBA draft pick in 2026.

“I always viewed us as the opportunity to grow into the 31st NBA team,” Walsh said. “When I say that, I mean to become a globally recognized sports brand. Seven years ago, if you mentioned the New Zealand Breakers, I think .001 percent of basketball fans would know who they were. If you watch an NBA draft, they’re talking about the Breakers. They’re talking about the NBL. That was my kind of global vision, to turn us into a true global sports property.”

Walsh was setting up chairs before a game in May 2021 in New Zealand — even the owner has to do grunt work — when he received a call that his former coach at Germantown Academy died. Jim Fenerty was one of Philly’s all-time high school coaches as he coached G.A. for 30 years and finished with the most wins in Inter-Ac history.

For Walsh, he was a coach that gave him a chance. He helped Walsh secure a scholarship that was awarded to one athlete. Without it, Walsh said he likely would not have ended up at the private school. He played at St. Bede’s for Danny Craige, the basketball coach who told Walsh to never change. Walsh was surrounded by people who made him believe he could play at Florida for Billy Donovan, recover from the disappointment from going undrafted, ride shotgun with Shaq, and own a team in New Zealand.

“I was just so fortunate, from my dad, to Dan Craige, to Jim Fenerty, to Billy Donovan,” Walsh said. “I have had the most fortunate basketball life on Earth and it’s largely because I had these people who believed in me long before I had that belief in myself. My mom and dad always pumped me up. Whatever I said my dream was, they supported it. I’ve never been afraid to take the big risk. I’ve never been afraid to say ‘Screw it’ and go for it.”

» READ MORE: Tyrese Maxey assumes a new role at Sixers training camp: He’s a leader now.

Walsh signed with the Heat in July of 2005 and quickly purchased a new car.

“A 21-year-old, first paycheck you get, you buy a Cadillac Escalade,” Walsh said. “The NBA car starter kit.”

One day, Walsh found his car wrecked in the parking garage of his apartment complex. He hailed a taxi to practice and told his teammates in the locker room. The rookie was stuck. After practice, O’Neal found him.

“Brother Wash,” O’Neal said, using the nickname he gave Walsh. “You need a ride home?”

Walsh was stunned.

“I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? Shaquille O’Neal is offering me a ride home,’” Walsh said.

They took the long way home, caused a scene on South Beach, and then watched games together on the bench after O’Neal suffered an early-season injury.

“He would always make me sit next to him so he wouldn’t get sweaty,” said Walsh, who scored just one basket and played in two games with the Heat. “For me, it was a dream. He would pull me next to him so he would never have to sit next to someone who was actually playing.”

Walsh’s basketball career took him all over the world and it brings him back to Philly on Monday. He’s found success in New Zealand, owns a soccer team in Mexico, lives in Austin, Texas, and has a strong business career with tech companies. But he’ll always remember what it meant to take the long way home with Shaq.

“He was just the most generous guy,” Walsh said. “It always stuck with me that if I’m ever able to have any success in life, treat people like that. I was the 15th man on the roster. I got cut two months into the season. A guy like Shaq, he took the time to treat the bottom guy on the roster like I was [Dwyane] Wade or if I was Jason Williams. When I got cut, my agent was like, ‘Do you know who the maddest guy in the locker room was? It was Shaq.’ Now I look back on it and I’m like, ‘How did that happen?’”