Basketball star Shaquille O’Neal said he once turned down an offer to do business with Starbucks because he thought “black people didn’t drink coffee” — and deeply regrets it now that he’s seen the chain’s success.

During an interview with sports reporter Graham Bensinger, O’Neal said that he had once received a call from his agent informing him that Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz wanted to “go in with him” and open up some franchises in black communities.

“So I looked in the great Howard Schultz’s face and said, ‘Black people don’t drink coffee, sir. I don’t think it’s gonna work,’” he said.

Shaq’s reasoning: In his own household, no one drank coffee — only sweet tea and hot chocolate — so it was his “thought process that black people didn’t drink coffee.”

“And I’m always the guy that if I don’t believe in it, can’t do it,” he said.

Fellow NBA star Magic Johnson later bought stakes in 105 Starbucks franchises and sold them back in 2010 — for an estimated $27 million.

#share#Shaq called the choice one of his “worst business decisions.” In fact, he said he’s still not over it to this day:

“[Magic and I are] still good friends today but that was one of my worst business decisions because now, every time, on every corner in every city, every country, you see a Starbucks . . . I’m like ‘aw,’” he said.

O’Neal also told the story in his 2011 autobiography, Shaq Uncut: My Story.

“I thought it was a white person’s drink,” he wrote in the book.