The most improbable part about four-year-old Drive Nation, though, is how it came to be. Its conceiver, the benefactor who has poured $14 million into Drive Nation without taking so much as a dollar in return, is a six-time NBA All-Star who had no ties to North Texas when he moved his family here in 2012. Jermaine O’Neal says he was drawn by the lack of state income tax; the competitive academic and athletic climates for his daughter and son; and his lifelong fandom of the local NFL team. “That investment has not paid me back yet,” he laughs of the Cowboys. “But I’ve got a good feeling it’s coming.”