Shaquille O Nealseems to think thatShareef O Neal supbringing is the reason behind his lack of success as a basketball player. As NBA fans will be aware, Shareef is the eldest son of the 4x NBA champion and has already committed to being a potential NBA player.
However, he is yet to translate his innate potential into in-game plays and has struggled to compete in college and the NBA G League and averaged poor numbers. Since he is the son of a famous and well-known NBA legend, the pressure was soon put on Shaq to defend his son. Let us take a closer look at what O Neal had to say and decipher the validity of it.
Shaquille O Neal opines that his son Shareef O Neal was raised to be too nice
Although thenumberswould indicate that Shareef is a subpar player, Shaq opines that the problem lies in his mentality and approach to the game of basketball. This is quite an interesting take. However, many simply view this as a defensive explanation by O Neal with the intent of protecting his son.
I taught him how to be too nice cuz in this game there are many times when coaches tell me to do something I m not doing that. For what? You want me to go set a pick and roll when this dude is on me to get a guard open for a jump shot hell nah..But he s Me and his mom we did a wonderful job of making him the man that he is.
As we can tell, Shaq makes several points to justify the lackluster performances that we have seen from Shareef so far. He explains how defying the coaches and playing by instinct is something that his son hesitates to do. That would require being mean or tough and Shareef was simply raised to be too nice and subservient.
During a game, a player can usually adhere to the coach s wishes or take things into his own hands. However, the latter is looked down upon, especially if the player isn t successful after taking an ill-advised shot. Therefore, it is possible Shareef has gone with the flow of the game and not made his own playstyle clear because he isn t sure if he will be successful in completing the play.
In any case, it is also possible that his lack of aggressiveness and his tendency to be too nice has also played a role. We hope he is able to get over this obstacle and achieve his goals.
