In addition to the many ventures Shaquille O’Neal has taken on, being a parent might still be the most important one for him. He is the father of six children — three boys and three girls. As it turns out, he has done things that just about every other father in the world has done.
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Raising boys is one thing, but protecting your daughters is something entirely different. So when O’Neal spoke about his parenting on the latest edition of his podcast with guest Keenan Thompson, he admitted that he’s at times had to play the bad cop.
The Diesel joked that when his youngest daughter, Me’arah, brought home a boyfriend, he did not go easy on the young lad.
“When my baby brought a motherf***** by, he tried to shake my hand. I said, ‘Man, if you don’t get the f*** out of my face. Man, if you don’t get the f*** away from me.'” Shaq’s response made Thompson and co-host Adam Lefkoe break down laughing.
O’Neal wanted it to be known that these kids have to show more respect.
“Don’t show up to my crib with your pants half off your a**. It ain’t gonna go. Don’t address me as OG. It’s ain’t gonna go,” stated the Lakers, Magic, and Heat legend. It makes sense. Shaq was a young, immature man at one point in his life, too. But when it’s your kid that is on the line, the entire demeanor changes.
Not to mention the fact that Shaq wants these potential suitors to address him properly. “Mr. O’Neal,” answered Shaq when Lefkoe asked him what he wanted these kids to call him. This led him to explain why he has become a protective guardian to his daughter.
“You can see them as our parents saw us. It ain’t no lie you can tell my daughter that I didn’t invent. Remember this? Going to the movie and putting your hand on the shoulder? I invented that. That was me,” he joked.
Shaq is, at the end of the day, just a dad trying to keep his daughter safe in a world he knows all too well. The same instincts that helped him dominate the paint now kick in when it comes to protecting his family, and he has no problem leaning into the “big, intimidating father” persona if it helps set the standard.
But beneath the jokes and the bluster is a real, steady love for his kids and a drive to guide them better than he was guided. And if that means a few nervous boyfriends and a firm “Mr. O’Neal,” then that is simply part of being Shaq.
