Shaquille O’Neal dominating the NBA the way that he did led a majority of fans to believe that his son, Shareef O’Neal, would follow suit as he went along his basketball journey. During his days in high school, he was quite the highly touted recruit, being labelled a 4-star recruit by ‘Rivals’.
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Shareef unfortunately, would face a massive roadblock in his journey to the NBA, with him having to get open heart surgery during his freshman campaign at UCLA. He would miss the entirety of his first year as a Bruin and after his sophomore year, would shift universities.
He would announce in February of 2020 that he was going to be attending his father’s alma mater, Louisiana State University (LSU), for both his junior and senior years of uni. Here, he would average merely 2.9 points a game in his senior year 9.2 minutes per game.
Shareef O’Neal decommitted from Arizona due to an FBI scandal
At the same time that Shareef O’Neal was deciding on where he would want to play as a freshman, DeAndre Ayton was committing to become an Arizona State Wildcat. What would push Shareef away from Arizona State would be an FBI investigation involving Ayton.
An FBI wiretap into a phone call between Christian Dawkins and Wildcat head coach Miller revealed that they were looking to secure Ayton with a $100,000 payment. At the time, the NCAA forbade any sort of payments to collegiate level athletes as a way to lure them to their program.
Shareef was clearly not trying to get anywhere close to this situation as he tweeted out during the time, “Lol don’t want to be involved with that.” He would decommit soon enough and look to be a UCLA Bruin.
Where is Shareef O’Neal playing as of 2022?
After quite the lackluster 4 years at the collegiate ball level, Shareef O’Neal went undrafted in 2022. Though, he most certainly has not given up on his professional ball hoop dreams.
He is currently signed to the G-League Ignite team after having played for the Los Angeles Lakers during Summer League.
