It is not surprising that Shaquille O’Neal engages in basketball battles with his sons Shareef and Shaqir regularly. But what is surprising is what transpires in those contests. Usually, we would think that even in his 50s, Shaq would dominate the two young hoopers. But it seems like the youngsters have caught up to their father with time. In fact, Shareef O’Neal once claimed that he would win 11-0 in a one-on-one matchup against his pops.
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Shaquille O’Neal recently took to his Instagram and shared a clip on his stories in which his son can be seen making this claim.
The video was originally an interview with The Score, where Shareef revealed how his dad starts to complain about non-existent travel violations and foul calls when he is getting overwhelmed by him in 1v1 games. Claiming that he can easily score 11-0 in “make and take” 1v1 scenarios against his father, the former G-League Ignite guard said,
“Here is what he [Shaq] gonna do, he gonna back me down, he misses, it is a foul, he makes it, his ball. Anytime I go past him, he is gonna say it is a travel or somethin’ like that.”
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Then the LSU alum asked his brother Shaqir O’Neal to confirm the same and he agreed that their father “cheats” during one-on-one match-ups against them.
The interviewer was pretty surprised by the revelation. But the brothers were adamant with their claims. And since Shaq shared the clip without any clarifications, the brothers’ claims are probably true.
Apart from that, Shaqir also mocked Shaq’s shooting abilities, which caused him to resort to underhanded methods. Then Shareef claimed that he needed only three dribbles to beat his father as the latter didn’t possess the foot movement to keep up with him anymore.
This video is from 2022 when Shareef O’Neal was suiting for the G-League Ignite squad. It proves that the 3x Finals MVP can’t digest losing against his sons.
Shaq recalls Shareer making a bold claim pic.twitter.com/GAYQmi5Tdi
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This is not surprising considering that the big fella was one of the fiercest competitors during his NBA days and hates losing to the core. Now that he is bearing the brunt of old age, his muscles are stiff, and he needs to tweak the rules to come out on top. Despite that, at least as per his sons, he is no match for them anymore.
