Shareef Rashaun O'Neal (born January 11, 2000) is an American professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player who last played for the NBA G League Ignite of the

NBA G League The NBA G League, or simply the G League, is a professional basketball league in North America that serves as the Minor league#Basketball, developmental league of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The league comprises 31 teams; as of ...

. The son of

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player

Shaquille O'Neal Shaquille Rashaun O'Neal ( ; born March 6, 1972), commonly known as Shaq ( ), is an American former professional basketball player who is a sports analyst on the television program ''Inside the NBA''. He is a and Center (basketball), center ...

, he attended Crossroads School in

Santa Monica, California Santa Monica (; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Santa Mónica'') is a city in Los Angeles County, California, Los Angeles County, situated along Santa Monica Bay on California's South Coast (California), South Coast. Santa Monica's 2020 United Sta ...

. As a senior forward, O'Neal was ranked among the top high school basketball players of his class. He was a

redshirt Redshirt, Red Shirt, or Redshirts may refer to: Sports * Redshirt (college sports) Redshirt, in United States college athletics, is a delay or suspension of an athlete's participation in order to lengthen their period of eligibility. Typically ...

during his first season in

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

with the

UCLA Bruins The UCLA Bruins are the athletic teams that represent the University of California, Los Angeles. The Bruin men's and women's teams participate in NCAA Division I as part of the Big Ten Conference and the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation (MPSF ...

, when he underwent heart surgery. He played as a reserve for the Bruins in 2019–20 before transferring midseason to the LSU Tigers.

Early life

Born in Los Angeles, O'Neal is the son of former

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...

(NBA) player

and Shaunie O'Neal. He has two older half-siblings and three younger siblings. Despite his father's basketball fame, Shareef grew up without a passion for the game and preferred

skateboarding Skateboarding is an extreme sport, action sport that involves riding and Skateboarding trick, performing tricks using a skateboard, as well as a recreational activity, an art form, an entertainment industry Profession, job, and a method of tr ...

. His interest in basketball grew after he had a disappointing performance at a middle school

Amateur Athletic Union The Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) is an amateur sports organization based in the United States. A multi-sport organization, the AAU is dedicated exclusively to the promotion and development of amateur sports and physical fitness programs. It h ...

game and was prompted to "prove everybody wrong" on the court. At age 13, O'Neal began training regularly and was able to dunk.

High school career

Starting in his freshman season, O'Neal played basketball for Windward School in Los Angeles at the forward position. His highlight videos immediately helped him gain popularity on the Internet and appeared in ''

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''. However, he received limited playing time because the team's six seniors earned the most minutes. Head coach Steve Smith viewed O'Neal's first season with Windward as a "learning year" and expected him to assume a larger role in the following season. At the end of the season, he was averaging 3.7 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. In May 2015, O'Neal received a scholarship offer from

USC USC may refer to: Education United States * Universidad del Sagrado Corazón, Santurce, Puerto Rico * University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina ** University of South Carolina System, a state university system of South Carolina * ...

, his first from an

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest division of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athlet ...

program. In the following months, he had additional offers from Baylor,

LSU Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

, and Kansas State. O'Neal remained with Windward as a sophomore and saw significant improvement. In October 2015, at a tournament in Fairfax High School that featured many top high school teams in the nation, O'Neal scored 23 points in a loss to Bishop Alemany. O'Neal, in December, drew attention from scouts at the MaxPreps Holiday Classic despite his team's struggles. He became known as a versatile

swingman A swingman is an athlete capable of playing multiple positions in their sport. Basketball In basketball, the term "swingman" (a.k.a. "wing" or "guard-forward") denotes a player who can play both the shooting guard (2) and small forward (3) positi ...

with ball-handling, shooting, and defending skills. On June 29, 2016, the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'' announced that O'Neal would transfer to Crossroads School in Santa Monica. He joined the team expected to take a leading role with top high school recruit Ira Lee. On January 6, 2017, O'Neal scored 15 points in a 54–50 win over Brentwood. In a 44–80 loss to Mater Dei on February 17, he scored 20 points in a matchup with

Bol Bol Bol Manute Bol ( ; born November 16, 1999) is a South Sudanese–American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. A son of basketball p ...

, son of former NBA player

Manute Bol Manute Bol ( ; June 19, 2010) was a Sudanese-American professional basketball player and political activist. Listed at or tall, Bol was one of the two tallest players in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). After he p ...

Recruiting

In April 2017, O'Neal committed to play college basketball for

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

. On February 24, 2018, he decommitted from Arizona immediately following

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by ESPN that FBI wiretaps had intercepted phone conversations between Arizona coach

Sean Miller Sean Edward Miller (born November 17, 1968) is an American college basketball coach who currently serves as head coach at the Texas Longhorns men's basketball, University of Texas at Austin. He previously served as head coach at the Arizona Wil ...

and an agent discussing paying $100,000 to ensure star player

Deandre Ayton Deandre Edoneille Ayton Sr. ( ; born July 23, 1998) is a Bahamian professional basketball player for the Portland Trail Blazers of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A consensus five-star prospect in the Class of 2017 and a McDonald's All ...

signed with Arizona. Because he signed a nonbinding financial aid agreement with Arizona instead of a formal

letter of intent A letter of intent (LOI or LoI, or Letter of Intent) is a document outlining the understanding between two or more parties which they intend to formalize in a legally binding agreement. The concept is similar to a heads of agreement, term she ...

, he did not require a release from Arizona to seek out a new school. O'Neal verbally committed to

on February 27, but he did not sign a

National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

during the signing period that ended on May 16. He signed with the Bruins in August.

College career

UCLA (2018–2020)

During practices over the summer, O'Neal began dealing with health issues, and was given a heart monitor by doctors to wear. On September 28, 2018, UCLA announced that he would miss the 2018–19 season but remain enrolled at the school as a medical

. He was diagnosed with a heart condition by the UCLA medical staff, and underwent surgery in December. He played in the Drew League over the summer, and later in the Bruins' exhibition game. He wore a monitoring device during practice for post-surgery research on his heart but did not wear it during games. In April 2019, UCLA hired Mick Cronin as their head coach to replace the fired

Steve Alford Stephen Todd Alford (born November 23, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack men's basketball, Nevada Wolf Pack of the Mountain West Conference (MWC). ...

. O'Neal made his UCLA debut in the 2019–20 season opener, playing six minutes without scoring against Long Beach State. On December 14, 2019, he had his best game of the season with eight points and a career-high 11 rebounds in a loss against Notre Dame. In a win against

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on January 19, 2020, Cronin elected not to play O'Neal for the fifth time during the season. On January 22, O'Neal announced that he was leaving UCLA. He averaged 2.2 points and 2.9 rebounds in 10.2 minutes per game as a reserve for the Bruins, who were 9–9 at the time.

LSU (2020–2022)

On February 14, 2020, O'Neal announced that he was transferring to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, where his father played college basketball. O'Neal suffered a foot injury that kept him from the Tigers' first few conference games of the 2020–21 season, and was limited to 10 games played overall for the season. He missed the first 12 games of 2021–22 while recovering from his foot injury. He played in 14 games, averaging 2.9 points and 2.1 rebounds while playing an average of 9.4 minutes per game. After the season, he entered the transfer portal. On June 6, 2022, O'Neal declared for the

NBA draft The NBA draft is the National Basketball Association's (NBA) annual event, dating back to 1947 BAA draft, 1947, in which the teams in the league can Draft (sports), draft players who declare for the draft and that are Eligibility for the NBA dr ...

after he was mistakenly placed on the list of early entrants who had withdrawn from the draft.

Professional career

NBA G League Ignite (2022–2023)

After going undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft, O'Neal joined the

Los Angeles Lakers The Los Angeles Lakers are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Lakers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Conference (NBA ...

in the

2022 NBA Summer League The 2022 NBA Summer League, also branded as the NBA 2K23 Summer League 2022, was an off-season competition held by the National Basketball Association (NBA) primarily at the Thomas and Mack Center and Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, Nevada on the cam ...

. On September 28, 2022, he signed with the NBA G League Ignite as a veteran player since he was draft eligible in the 2022 NBA draft. O'Neal was named to the G League's inaugural Next Up Game for the 2022–23 season. On October 18, 2024, O'Neal signed with the

Sacramento Kings The Sacramento Kings are an American professional basketball team based in Sacramento, California. The Kings compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Pacific Division (NBA), Pacific Division of the Western Confere ...

, but was waived the next day. On October 27, he joined the

Stockton Kings The Stockton Kings are an American professional basketball team of the NBA G League based in Stockton, California, and are affiliated with the Sacramento Kings. The Kings play their home games at the Adventist Health Arena and compete in the G ...

, but was then waived on November 7.

Career statistics

College

, - , style="text-align:left;", 2018–19 , style="text-align:left;",

, style="text-align:center;" colspan="11",

Medical Redshirt , - , style="text-align:left;", 2019–20 , style="text-align:left;",

, 13 , , 0 , , 10.2 , , .321 , , .333 , , .474 , , 2.9 , , .2 , , .3 , , .2 , , 2.2 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2020–21 , style="text-align:left;",

, 10 , , 0 , , 14.5 , , .375 , , .182 , , .500 , , 4.4 , , .0 , , .5 , , .5 , , 2.8 , - , style="text-align:left;", 2021–22 , style="text-align:left;",

, 14 , , 0 , , 9.2 , , .500 , , .143 , , .467 , , 2.1 , , .1 , , .1 , , .4 , , 2.9 , - class="sortbottom" , style="text-align:center;" colspan="2", Career , 37 , , 0 , , 11.0 , , .405 , , .208 , , .480 , , 3.0 , , .1 , , .3 , , .4 , , 2.6

References

External links

LSU Tigers bioUCLA Bruins bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Oneal, Shareef 2000 births Living people 21st-century African-American sportsmen 21st-century American sportsmen American men's basketball players Basketball players from Los Angeles LSU Tigers men's basketball players NBA G League Ignite players Power forwards Shaquille O'Neal UCLA Bruins men's basketball players Windward School alumni