“Thought I Was Watching Your Father”: Shaquille O’Neal Showers Ice Cube’s Son with Best Praise Over Iconic Movie Role

One of the most difficult things for the child of a famous person to do is to find their own identity outside of their parent’s shadow. However, O’Shea Jackson Jr. created his own identity by becoming his father, Ice Cube’s shadow. O’Shea played his father in the hit 2015 film, ‘Straight Outta Compton’, created around the story of the famous rap group NWA.

Although the physical similarities between the father and son are uncanny, Jackson received praise for his acting abilities as well. NBA legend, Shaquille O’Neal was the latest celebrity to give O’Shea enormous praise for his performance.

O’Shea made a guest appearance on The Big Podcast with Shaq, where Shaq said to him,

“I don’t know if you heard this before but the way you played NWA I thought I was watching your father. That’s how long I’ve known your pops and I actually like you. I don’t know if anybody tells you but you did an incredible job on that.”

In hindsight, it is pretty clear that O’Shea was the perfect candidate to play Ice Cube since he’s his son. However, that wasn’t the case before the movie came out. Jackson had to endure two years of auditions before he finally earned the role. Moreover, there was tremendous pressure on him to deliver a good performance since there weren’t any great rap biopics at the time.

Regardless, O’Neal was brought to a state of nostalgia while watching the film due to O’Shea’s amazing performance.

In the same manner that Shaq kept it real with O’Shea, he did so with Shaq as well, even if it meant the two disagreed on certain basketball takes.

O’Shea disagreed with a notorious LeBron take by Shaq

There are only a select number of players in NBA history who have been able to strike fear in their opponents. Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant are atop the short list of names. Shaq went a step further to claim LeBron James didn’t evoke the same fear in his opponents, which O’Shea vehemently disagreed with.

In a post on X, Jackson shared his response to the quote by highlighting James’ infamous dominance over the Raptors. “They called the f*****g city LeBronto,” Jackson said.

LeBron’s dominance over the Raptors is one of the many examples of the fear James struck into his opponents. O’Shea respects O’Neal but isn’t afraid to speak his mind when the two have a difference in opinions. Disagreements such as this instance are why the two can maintain a solid relationship since they keep it real with each other.