Shaquille O’Neal has voiced his opinion at times that his son Shaqir O’Neal is not ready to make it in the NBA. As some fans might be aware, the Los Angeles Lakers legend has 6 children, and two of them, Shareef O’Neal and Shaqir O’Neal seem intent on pursuing a career in the NBA.
Since Shaq is the only one in the family who knows what it takes to make it, he has shown an interesting stance toward them participating in the same field. Especially since Shareef’s career has not gone according to plan. Let us take a closer look and find out more.
Shaquille O’Neal wants his children to be tough enough in order to make the NBA
Although O’Neal doesn’t want to stop Shareef or Shaqir from pursuing a career in basketball, he knows what comes along with it. Shareef is currently 23 years old and applied for the NBA Draft. However, he went undrafted but was still given a chance by the Los Angeles Lakers. He did not meet expectations and was not resigned.
While Shareef had health issues that impedimented his growth, it isn’t the same case for Shaqir who is 20 years old and playing college basketball for Texas Southern University. He still has more time to develop his game and could even potentially grow. He is already listed at an impressive 6’7.
Shareef already took his shot and clearly requires more time. On the other hand, Shaqir is yet to apply for the NBA Draft and could do so within a few years at the most. Shaqir has even approached Shaq and asked to live and train with him.
This has meant undergoing a fair amount of trash-talk from the 4x NBA champion. That is exactly what he reminded them about when he missed a shot, “I’m a hall of famer you are not. I got 4 rings, you ain’t got 4 rings so it doesn’t matter.”
One could argue that it is childish or petty to trash-talk one’s own children. However, we shouldn’t forget that Shaq knows they will undergo the same thing constantly when playing at a higher level. After all, trash talk is turning into a staple in the game of basketball. Since O’Neal engaged in this form of behavior, it might also be his way of showing them how things operate in the NBA.