Shareef O’Neal made a decision to rebel against his father Shaquille O’Neal and pursue a professional career in the NBA. As we all know, Shaq is a former NBA star and is regarded by many to be one of the most dominant and unstoppable forces that the game of basketball has ever seen.
The very name of O’Neal is quite a burden to bear and is something that Shareef has struggled to live up to so far. However, there is a good explanation for why his journey so far cant be deemed a success. Let us take a better look and find out more about this story and how things turned out in terms of his relationship with his father.
Shaquille O’Neal disapproved of Shareef O’Neal skipping college and applying for the NBA Draft
As some of us might already be aware, Shaq has never pressured his children to follow in his footsteps and pursue an NBA career. In fact, he has boldly proclaimed that one NBA player from the family was more than enough. He would rather his children become proficient in another field.
O’Neal’s eldest son Shareef didn’t pay heed to his advice despite the fact that he had to undergo open heart surgery when he was 18 years old. There were also other problems for Shareef. He underwent multiple stress fractures on his feet during his time in college. Shareef said as per ESPN that he still chose to bet on himself by skipping college. This was despite having multiple people advising him against applying for the Draft.
“It’s such a blessing that I’m here in this position because, you know, there were a few months where I thought basketball was taken away and I was going to have to find something else…I already did a year and a half of it with the heart surgery. I just kept getting hurt, and I didn’t know what was going to happen, so I just bet on myself, and I was like, ‘I want to go pro.’ Everybody was telling me it was a bad idea, coaches, family, I didn’t let it discourage me. I kept going.”
Although we can certainly admire his determination, things have not worked out well for Shareef so far. Not only did he go undrafted, he was given a second chance by the Lakers but not kept on the roster. It is certainly not too late for him. However, there is no denying that he should have listed to Shaquille O’Neal and waited a bit longer.
