Shareef O’Neal is the son of NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, meaning he has some big shoes to fill both literally and figuratively.
Coming into college Shareef had a lot of hype around him. Unfortunately, things would quickly go awry from there. He transferred; he had open heart surgery; he dealt with minimal playing time when he did finally get on the court.
It was a mess.
This summer he decided to try his hand at joining the NBA. After playing for the Los Angeles Lakers’ summer league team, he performed decently enough to secure a six-figure contract from the Ignite, a G-League team.
The question now is: where will he go from here? Is this Shareef’s ceiling? Or is this simply the beginning of what will eventually become a storied career?
Robert Horry has an interesting take on the subject.
During a recent episode of the Big Shot Bob Pod, Horry gave his brutally honest assessment of Shareef.
“I picked up my phone and I was getting ready to call Shaq like ‘Yo man, you gotta tell your son…he can’t be playing off the damn O’Neal name. He gotta go out there and play.’ You gotta put forth some more effort man,” Horry said. “You know Shareef’s such a nice kid, that I don’t know if he has that dog in him to go out there and take what he wants.”
Whether he’s reacting to Tom Brady’s latest Super Bowl title or breaking down the difference between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant, Horry generally keeps it pretty real.
In that vein, it’s unsurprising he opted to be so honest here.
Hopefully the Cardinals can have as good of a year as their coach is having. https://t.co/XZR1eNs4oF
— Game 7 (@game7__) August 3, 2022
It’s just par for the course when it comes to his analysis.
Will Shareef be able to prove Horry wrong and go on to have a successful NBA career?
Time will tell.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.