Shareef O’Neal, son of Shaquille O’Neal, is one of the names, who are looked to have a glorious career in the NBA like their father. Shareef went undrafted in 2022 but later joined the Lakers for the 2022 NBA Summer League, before joining the G League. Life might seem lavish when born into a celebrity family, but it has its own set of problems. Shareef O’Neal also faced some of those problems because of his father, who was nothing short of a Hollywood superstar in Los Angeles. Shaq’s son said that finding true friends, who cared about him and not his family background, was really hard for him.
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Being the son of a famous personality has its pros and cons. A better life with better opportunities and the fame of being born elite. Perhaps, everything comes easy when you are born into a rich, famous family, except for true people. On the Now For Later podcast with Eric Mika, O’Neal Jr. talked in detail about his life, basketball career, and family. The son of the Lakers legend said that since middle school, he always had difficulty finding friends who really cared about him and were genuine.
Shareef O’Neal found it difficult to have genuine friends
Speaking on the podcast, Shareef said that he has always been very careful about choosing his friends since middle school. Knowing that his father, Shaquille O’Neal, plays for the city in the NBA, he wasn’t sure who was real his real friend, and who was just there for his father. Shareef also added that his other friends used to ask him if he had been to the Lakers game. He candidly recalled a story from his school when he didn’t tell one of his best friends about his father. This is what O’Neal said;
“So that was hard, you know like finding friends who were really there for me or who were there just for the fact of who my family is…one of my best friends in middle school, he didn’t really know until he came over. He is like why didn’t you tell me. I said I would have said something but I just didn’t want you to treat me different. He was like oh! I don’t even like basketball.”
It wasn’t just finding true friends that Shareef found difficult. He also had difficulty finding a person to date, who wouldn’t just stay with him for his money.
Shaquille O’Neal was envious of his 8-year-old son
Shaq honed himself into being arguably the most dominant player in NBA history. He made his way to LSU, and from there, his journey started after putting insane performances on the court. His son, on the other hand, had a father who was a superstar player in Los Angeles and also his coach. In an interview, Big Diesel revealed that he was envious of his then 8-year-old son, because of the things he could do on the court.
“My son Shareef is an athlete. I’m very jealous of him. He was doing things on the basketball court at the age of eight that I couldn’t do until I was sixteen years old. I was his coach last summer and we were undefeated. He’s very very funny and very sensitive. Sound like anyone you know?”
Being a father may have magnified Shaq’s appreciation for his son. However, Shareef has shown high-level basketball here and there, and there is a strong chance that he might be picked up by an NBA team for the roster.
