Shareef O’Neal is Shaquille O’Neal’s eldest son with Shaunie Henderson. With a Hall of Famer as his father, Shareef took a rather bold decision in life to pave his way. Just like his father Shareef inspires to play in the NBA, he is often compared to his father, however, he does not let that affect him. Shaq’s eldest son is paving the way for himself and wants to earn his place in the league.
It is a huge task when you are a kid with a huge sports personality. In Shareef’s case, he is the son of a Hall of Famer, which places a burden of huge expectations on him. Nevertheless, Shareef has avoided comparisons to his father. He is often seen working out and improving his game. However, in a recent interview, he opened up about how he tried to hide the fact that he is the son of Shaquille O’Neal.
“The thing about me that not a lot of people know is nobody knew who my dad was at none of my schools until I was about 15 or 16 years old,” Shareef said. “But when basketball season started coming around, people started filming the games. There was a small game, 8 o’clock in the morning, my dad came and someone happened to film him. They posted it on YouTube and that was it after that,” Shareef admitted in an interview with ESSENCE.
Shareef also admitted who would attend parent-teacher conferences to hide his father. “All the parent-teacher conferences, it was just my mom who came. It was a set plan. We just kind of hid it so people didn’t treat us differently,” Shareef added. It is clear to see that Shareef made a path for himself.
After going undrafted in 2022, Shareef O’Neal is working his way to the NBA
Shareef O’Neal was undrafted in the 2022 NBA Draft, even after his father wanted him to stay in school. Nonetheless, Rhareef received an invitation to the Summer League roster spot in Los Angeles Lakers. He didn’t let the disappointment of not being drafted get to him. “Once I started getting calls from teams to work out, I was like, man, this is what I want to do, I’m here, it’s right in front of me, just go for it so I continued to work,” Shareef mentioned.