Sep 1, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins Shareef O’Neal attends the BIG3 championship game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Shareef O’Neal is digging deep into the archives after landing with the Los Angeles Lakers.
Shareef, son of retired NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, reached an agreement on Thursday to play for the Lakers during NBA Summer League this year. He celebrated by tweeting out a very cool throwback video of himself as a toddler. In the video, Shareef was wearing a Lakers jersey in the stands.
The 6-foot-10 forward Shareef was born in 2000, so that video was likely from the era when his father was leading the Lakers to three straight NBA titles from 2000 to 2002.
This is a great outcome for Shareef, who averaged just 2.6 points per game in college and went undrafted on Thursday. Shaq is probably happy to see his son land in the purple and gold as well, but Shareef does not quite have Shaq’s full approval right now.
Nov 22, 2017; Paradise Island, BAHAMAS; NBA former player Shaquille O’Neal during the first half of the game between the North Carolina State Wolfpack and Arizona Wildcats in the 2017 Battle 4 Atlantis in Imperial Arena at the Atlantis Resort. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
Shaquille O’Neal is apparently not seeing eye-to-eye with his son Shareef on one significant matter.
Shareef, who is eligible for the NBA Draft this year, revealed to reporters on Tuesday that he has butted heads with his Hall of Fame father over the predraft process because Shaq wanted him to stay in school.
The 6-foot-10 forward Shareef had some college eligiblity left, having been a redshirt junior for the LSU Tigers last season. But Shareef decided to forgo that eligibility and is now working out for some notable NBA teams.
Shaq has gone viral before for his wise parenting, so it makes sense that he wanted Shareef to graduate from school instead, especially since Shareef averaged just 2.6 points per game over three college seasons. Hopefully though, Shareef’s bet on himself ends up paying off.
Sep 1, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins Shareef O’Neal attends the BIG3 championship game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Shareef O’Neal continues to make the rounds with some familiar teams.
Shareef, the 22-year-old son of Hall of Fame big man Shaquille O’Neal, told reporters on Friday that he had worked out for the Miami Heat on the day prior, per Josh Robbins of The Athletic. Shareef also worked out for the Washington Wizards on Friday.
Shareef’s father, of course, enjoyed a frutiful career as a Heat player. Shaq played in Miami from 2004 to 2008, making multiple All-NBA First Teams and winning a championship in 2006. The Heat are still largely run by the same management (most notably, owner Micky Arison and president Pat Riley) as they were when Shaq played for them.
As for Shareef, he only averaged 2.6 points per game overall in his college career but is drawing increased buzz because of his lineage. In addition to the Heat, Shareef is also working out with another prominent NBA team that his father played for.
Sep 1, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins Shareef O’Neal attends the BIG3 championship game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Shareef O’Neal may be getting his Hollywood fairy tale.
Jovan Buha of The Athletic reported on Thursday that O’Neal, the son of retired Basketball Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, has a workout scheduled this week with none other than the Los Angeles Lakers. Buha also says that O’Neal, who is eligible to be selected in this month’s NBA Draft, has already worked out for Milwaukee in addition to scheduled visits with Cleveland, Atlanta, Washington, and others.
The 22-year-old O’Neal is a 6-foot-10 forward. He was able to overcome a heart condition and played sparingly for UCLA before transferring to LSU, his father’s alma mater. O’Neal spent two years with the Tigers, averaging 2.9 points and 2.1 rebounds per game in 14 appearances last season.
The Lakers would be a very fitting landing spot for O’Neal. His father played for them from 1996 to 2004, winning three consecutive titles over that span. The elder O’Neal remains a beloved figure in the organization, having gotten his No. 34 jersey retired by the Lakers in 2013 and getting his own statue built outside of the Lakers’ home arena in 2017.
Shareef, the son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, originally played for UCLA before transferring to LSU, where his father starred. Ultimately, his career there did not go as planned, thanks in part to injuries. He played in only 14 games this past season, averaging 9.2 minutes per game.
O’Neal may have another reason to leave LSU, as the program is facing major sanctions thanks in part to former head coach Will Wade. O’Neal may not want to be involved in any of that, and he is unlikely to be the last to leave the Tigers as a result.
Photo: Sep 1, 2019; Los Angeles, CA, USA; UCLA Bruins Shareef O’Neal attends the BIG3 championship game at Staples Center. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Is Shaquille O’Neal a bad sport when it comes to pickup basketball? His son Shareef sure thinks so.
Shareef, a junior forward at LSU, said he hasn’t played his father one-on-one in about five years. Part of that may be because, in the younger O’Neal’s estimation, Shaq “plays super dirty” and “fouls a lot.”
“If we score on him, he’ll say it’s a travel,” Shareef told Josh Peter of USA Today. ‘He’ll say anything. I won, but he wants to say he won because he was playing dirty.”
The younger O’Neal added that his father won’t play him or brother Shaqir anymore and avoids any requests to join their games.
“All he does is just kind of stunt on us,” Shareef said. “He’ll tell us, ‘No, I’ve been doing this for 20 years.’ He’s like, ‘I taught you everything you know.’ He’ll say how many (NBA championship) rings he has.”
We do know Shaq and Shareef have a good relationship with some pretty fun banter. There’s little doubt that Shaq would have a very different interpretation of how these pickup games went, but you can understand why he might not want to go after a college basketball player in peak shape these days.
Mar 10, 2017; Atlanta, GA, USA; NBA former player Shaquille O’Neal watches a game between the Atlanta Hawks and Toronto Raptors in the third quarter at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 105-99. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports
Shareef O’Neal was close with Kobe Bryant and paid tribute to the late former Laker with a cool jacket.
Shareef, who is the son of Shaquille O’Neal, shared a photo on Instagram Saturday that showed him wearing the style of jacket that Kobe wore after winning the NBA championship in 2002.
That was the third of three championships in a row won by the Lakers. They beat the Pacers in 2000, the 76ers in 2001, and they swept the Nets in the 2002 NBA Finals.
Shaq and Kobe teamed up for those three championships before the team broke apart. Shaq later won a championship in Miami, while Kobe won two more with the Lakers. Whatever tension that existed between Shaq and Kobe was later worked out by the two stars, and Shaq has spoken glowingly about Kobe since January’s fatal helicopter crash.
Shareef O’Neal was one of the last people Kobe Bryant reached out to before the Los Angeles Lakers legend died in a helicopter crash earlier this year, and O’Neal says that has been a great source of motivation for him over the past several months.
Bryant checked in on O’Neal, who is the son of Shaquille O’Neal, the morning of the helicopter crash. Kobe sent Shareef a text message asking him, “You good fam?” O’Neal opened up about what that meant to him in a recent interview with B/R Hoops, and he said he now has a screenshot of the text saved as the background on his phone.
Shareef opens up to @brhoops about receiving one of Kobe's last text messages and how Kobe's death impacted him: “My phone background is just literally that message and I look at it every day because … it just motivates me.” pic.twitter.com/xQPoWCRPqs
O’Neal announced just days before Kobe’s death that he was transferring from UCLA, so Kobe may have been checking in on him to see how things were going with that. O’Neal also took a medical redshirt as a freshman after doctors discovered he had a heart condition for which he underwent surgery.
While Shaq has indicated he has regrets over not remaining in closer contact with Kobe in recent years, it is clear the two Lakers legends were family. Shareef now has the text message from Kobe as a reminder that Bryant was thinking about him.
O’Neal announced in late January that he was leaving UCLA and looking to transfer. We heard he was considering LSU, where his father Shaquille went, and Memphis, where Shaq’s ex-teammate Penny Hardaway coaches.
On Friday, Shareef told Sports Illustrated’s Robin Lundberg that he was going to LSU.
O’Neal was originally an Arizona commit but switched to UCLA after the Sean Miller wiretap scandal. O’Neal took a medical redshirt as a freshman after doctors discovered he had a heart condition for which he underwent surgery. O’Neal was cleared to play this season but only appeared in 13 games. He averaged 2.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game for the Bruins.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal may have openly disagreed about a number of things from the time they played together right up until Kobe’s death, but that did not prevent their two families from becoming extremely close. In particular, Kobe made a huge impact on Shaq’s son Shareef.
Like his father, Shareef was hit hard by the loss of Kobe and Kobe’s 13-year-old daughter Gianna. TMZ asked Shareef this week what the most important advice was that he received from Bryant, and he said Kobe stressed to him the importance of outworking the competition and not trying to fill Shaq’s massive shoes.
“He just told me to always be the best I can be,” Shareef said. “Always try hard and always try to work harder than everyone else ’cause every day you take off, there’s always people trying to get better.
“He just told me to be the best I can be, I don’t have to live up to my dad’s name. I don’t have to live up to anybody’s name. Be the best I can be.”
Shareef, who recently left the UCLA basketball team and is considering a transfer to LSU, said Kobe, Gianna and the seven others who died in a helicopter crash earlier this month will be on his mind every time he plays.
Not long after the crash, Shareef shared a heartbreaking screenshot on social media that showed Kobe had reached out to him that morning to check in on him. Shareef referred to Kobe as “unc” in the post, which was an indication of the close relationship they shared.
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