Why Shaquille O'Neal Doesn't Want His 7 Kids to Play Basketball
Shaquille O'Neal is hoping his kids will take a shot at something different.
The basketball legend, who is dad to Taahirah, 28—whom he shares with former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh—and Myles, 28, Shareef, 25, Amirah, 23, Shaqir, 22, and Me'arah, 19, whom he shares with ex-wife Shaunie Henderson, recently revealed that he has always told his children, "We don’t need another basketball player. At all.”
“So if you want to play basketball, cool, but please go to law school," he said on the May 23 episode of Today. "Please go to medical school. Please be an engineer. Please be an AI inventor. Just do something else."
Shaquille added, "So I give them freedom to be who they are. I never press them.”
The 53-year-old explained that his adult children will only benefit from his success if they choose to work hard themselves.
“In order to touch daddy’s cheese," he joked, "you got to show me two or three degrees."
Shaq—who played for the Orlando Magic, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, Phoenix Suns, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics during his 19-year career in the NBA—noted that thankfully, his children have never disappointed him.
“I never say, ‘Do this or do that.' You know, they just have to live their lives," he explained. "I hate using this word, but I have seven perfect children. I haven’t had a problem with any of my children ever. God bless.“
In fact, Shaq recently warned his son Shareef about pursuing a career in the NBA, as seen in his upcoming Netflix docuseries, Power Moves With Shaquille O’Neal.
"You know you're going to have to give everything up, right?" he told Shareef, per Today. "How many birthday parties did I miss? How many school plays did I miss? How many times did you wake up and not see me there?"
Shareef answered, "A lot," and acknowledged his dad's point.
"My dad missed birthdays, games, Christmas. I respected that, but I know when I was a kid, we always used to ask, ‘Is Dad gonna be there?’" Shareef recalled in the Netflix series. "We kind of knew that he’s playing basketball, he's busy. I know that every big player that has a family misses a lot of things that they wish they could go to."
But despite his busy schedule, Shaquille knows how he is "truly blessed" to have such great kids.
"I try to spoil them, but not really," he told E! News in 2022. "I've been blessed. I have wonderful children. They listen, they have wonderful mothers, so whatever they need, I take care of it."
For more athletes with kids who have taken on their talents, read on...
Considered by many to be the greatest basketball player of all time, it didn’t come as a surprise that Michael Jordan’s sons, Jeffrey Jordan and Marcus Jordan, sought to follow in his footsteps. After shooting hoops in high school, Jeffrey went on to play in college at both the University of Illinois and University of Central Florida, eager to step out of his dad’s shadow.
“I guess I’m not the top one or two or three or four players in my state,” Jeffrey told The Washington Post in 2005, “but I want to show that I can play here and that I'm not just a name.”
Marcus also played basketball during his own studies at UCF, crediting his dad for helping him chart his own path.
“He was giving me tips and pointers whenever I had questions and stuff like that,” he told The Gainesville Sun in 2011, “but really he was just telling me to be focused and work hard every day, because eventually it will pay off.”
Bronny James (born LeBron James Jr. on born Oct. 6, 2004) played high school basketball for Chatsworth Sierra Canyon in the San Fernando Valley before graduating to the University of Southern California.
While the NBA schedule has often kept LeBron from being able to attend a full slate of his son's games, he's went to great lengths to watch Bronny in action. In fact, he once chartered a plane on an off-day to catch Sierra Canyon play against his own alma mater, St. Vincent-St. Mary in Akron, Ohio.
"To go watch my son play...and also versus my alma mater," LeBron told reporters, "it's a pretty surreal, come-full-circle, unbelievable thing."
In June 2024, Bronny was drafted to the Los Angeles Lakers, making him and LeBron the first father-son duo to play in the NBA at the same time.
Also helping to make up the Sierra Canyon all-star squad? Zaire Wade, the eldest son of retired Miami Heat star (and former LeBron James teammate) Dwyane Wade.
"You've got to embrace it," Zaire, who transferred there in December 2019 from Florida, told Yahoo! Sports about the unusual amount of attention being paid to his team. "There are cameras on us wherever we go. There has been a lot of attention on me my whole life, but this is crazy. This is another level."
However, Zaire—unhappy with the lack of playing time he ended up getting—announced on Instagram In April 2020 that he'd be transferring to Brewster Academy in Wolfeboro, Fla.
Zaire was the 10th pick in the 2021 NBA G League draft, joining the Salt Lake City Stars. He went on to play for Cape Town Tigers of the Basketball Africa Leagu before signing with the of the ASEAN Basketball League in April 2024.
The retired football star has a daughter who may be able to leave him in the dust by now. After all, Cha'iel Johnson is a track and field star who competed in the 2017 AAU Junior Olympics at 12, winning the girls' 800-meter run.
She ran for St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Florida, before joining the University of Kentucky athletics team.
The NBA Hall of Famer's third-eldest child, who measures up at 6-foot-10, played college basketball for UCLA before being sidelined with a heart condition that required surgery.
After missing out on his 2018-19 season with the California-based school, he transferred to Louisiana State, where there's a 900-pound bronze statue of Shaq outside the LSU Basketball Practice Facility in honor of its famous alum.
After graduating from LSU, the basketball star joined the NBA G League Ignite, a developmental basketball league in the NBA G League, in 2022.
Shaq's 6-foot-2 daughter (pictured here with her brother Shareef O'Neal) announced her LSU enrollment in 2020 to join her sibling in playing college basketball for the school.
"One of the most difficult decisions for a person my age to make, is the jump from high school to college," she shared at the time. "Although I don't fully know what's ahead of me, I am ready for the challenge. I never imagined myself saying this, but I am excited to say that I have decided to commit to being a student athlete at LSU along side my brother Shareef O'Neal. I am Sooooo grateful to spend my next 4 years as a Tiger."
She then transferred to Texas Southern University's basketball program as part of their 2021-2022 team.
The eldest daughter of two-time NBA All-Star Zack Randolph played basketball alongside fellow NBA star scion Izela Arenas, daughter of Gilbert Arenas, during her studies at Sierra Canyon.
"I went to Michigan State under coach Tom Izzo," Randolph told the Los Angeles Times in December 2020. "He was a dog. Just hard. The boys you can be a little rough with. The girls, they have you wrapped around your finger. The girls look at you, 'Dad, I'm trying.' You have a special spot for the girls."
MacKenly said she'd beaten her dad three times in one-on-one, quipping, "He doesn't play any defense."
The 6-foot-3 son of the NFL Hall of Famer committed to Florida Atlantic University in 2019 as a preferred walk-on. Terique played basketball for most of his life before switching to football as a teen. He got his post-high school playing career off the ground at Contra Costa Community College before transferring.
After his college football career, Terique signed with the San Francisco 49ers' practice squad.
The Sierra Canyon graduate started all four years and won two state titles. He played college ball for Vanderbilt, before signing a two-way contract with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2022.
After a brief stint on the NBA G-League affiliate the South Bay Lakers, Scotty Jr. signed a two-way contract with the Memphis Grizzlies in 2024.
The former Chicago Bulls star and five-time NBA champion is a lot of things—and a dad is one of them.
His son Dennis Rodman Jr.—or DJ—played basketball and football at Corona del Mar High School in Newport Beach, Calif. After graduation, he became a forward at Washington State, before transferring to University of Southern California in 2023.
"He's one of the more under-rated or unknown players in Southern California," his high school coach, Ryan Schachter, told the Orange County Register after a game in 2017.
After his college career, DJ joined Capital City Go-Go of the NBA G League in 2024.
Though Dennis' son DJ followed his footsteps into basketball, his daughter Trinity Rodman carved her own path in the world of soccer. After the COVID-19 pandemic canceled her freshman season with the Washington State Cougars, she went professional and joined Washington Spirit in 2021 and United States women's national soccer team in 2022.
In 2024, Trinity won Olympic gold as part of Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
It's only fitting that golfing's GOAT has a kid who's got mad skills on the course. Charlie Woods made his televised-golf debut at the age of 11 alongside his dad at the 2020 PNC Championship.
When asked if he had been working on his swing ahead of the father-son outing, the 15-time major champion said, "I haven't put in any time. I don't really care about my game. I'm just trying to make sure that Charlie has the time of his life and is able to enjoy all of this.''
eonline
