Back in 2011, Shaquille O’Neal published his autobiography “Shaq Uncut” through which he narrated several tales from his illustrious career. At one point in the autobiography, Shaq explained how his life changed after signing the $17,400,000 contract in his rookie season. Growing up poor, the money did help improve his lifestyle. However, the signing of his first NBA contract also attracted unwanted people.
Advertisement
After dominating college basketball while representing the LSU Tigers, as expected, Shaquille O’Neal was selected as the #1 pick of the 1992 draft. As surprising as it sounds, Shaq pointed out a drawback of signing the lucrative $17,400,000 contract.
People would treat the Big Aristotle differently. The 7ft 1” big man revealed how his “old friends” wanted to be in contact with him again and how his “new friends” were only alongside him for “all his money”.
“One thing that got a little complicated was all the people who came out of nowhere once I signed my contract. All of a sudden everyone wanted a piece of me. Old “friends” who I never liked in the first place. New “friends” who didn’t love me, only the sight of all my money. “
Unfortunately, the people who he genuinely cared about, also had a change in their behaviour towards the then-Orlando Magic rookie.
“Even people I really cared about, all of a sudden everyone had an opinion on what I should do and how I should do it,” Shaq said.
It’s not common to see people wanting to be friends with professional athletes. While the attention that they receive seems to be great from a fan’s perspective, Shaq explained how players have to struggle with maintaining real relations.
Shareef O’Neal also faced the same issue as Shaquille O’Neal
Being the child of a professional athlete is extremely difficult. In Shareef O’Neal’s case, apart from the constant comparisons to his father, he also had a tough time making genuine friends. With Shaquille O’Neal being one of the most popular names in the sporting world, kids would want to be friends with Shareef for his father.
Hence, as difficult as it may have been, Shareef hid the fact that he was the son of one of the best basketball players. He once recalled not telling his middle school best friend about his family details. Once Shareef’s friend learned about the same, he revealed how he wasn’t even interested in the sport.
“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,” Shareef said.
Shareef O’Neal has now made quite a name for himself. Despite having a heart surgery in 2018, the 6ft 10” forward managed to become a professional basketball player. After playing in the Summer League, Reef represented the G-League Ignite for the 2022-2023 season.
