Shaquille O’Neal Refuses Youngest Son Shaqir’s Demand Despite $600 Million Net Worth

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal recently watched his son Shaqir O’Neal play college basketball for Texas Southern Tigers. Before the game, O’Neal stated that he does not expect his children to be like him. In the latest episode of the Big Podcast with Shaq, the four-time champion talked about watching his son play. He also addressed Shaqir’s performance in the game and explained what he expects from his children playing basketball. The Big Diesel inspired some laughs among his co-hosts when he hilariously noted that he declined Shaqir’s request for a raise.

During the podcast, Shaq and co-hosts Nischelle Turner and Spice Adams discussed a variety of hot topics. Meanwhile, Turner asked both Shaq and Adams about their children being athletes. She asked whether their children get nervous when their father visits them during games. NFL veteran Adams stated that he is a volunteer coach for his child’s team so he’s always around. On the other hand, Shaq had a whole different story to tell.

Shaquille O’Neal hilariously denied his son’s request

Shaquille O’Neal answered Turner’s question saying that his children are usually nervous when he shows up to games because they think he wants them to be perfect. However, O’Neal added that he never wantrd them to be perfect but always encouraged them to play hard and enjoy the game. He noted that his children think it is all about the number of points and rebounds, but it is not.

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The Los Angeles Lakers legend then admitted that Shaqir O’Neal played well and leveraging his performance demanded a raise. However, Shaq declined in a hilarious fashion, “So I gave him an NIL deal. I gave him a raise. I gave him a raise…a raise of **** ***.” After that, both Shaq and Spice started laughing their haerts out.

“He asked for some money I said, ‘Nah, you ain’t that good yet,”  he added. Interestingly, Shaq declined his son’s request even though he has built a business empire with a reported net worth of $600 million. The Big Diesel has revealed on multiple occasions that he prefers his children to get it out of the mud, instead of giving them hand-outs.

There is added pressure when you are the child of an NBA legend like O’Neal. People expect the same level of performance from the children of these legends and that is never good when they are growing up. So the former MVP has always made sure he takes some pressure off of his kids.

At the beginning of the podcast, the Big Diesel stated that he has told his children that they cannot be like him. He added that his children can’t be an “alien” like him. So he would just ask them to enjoy the game.

Shaq pushes his children to be better  

Shaquille O’Neal taught his children how to play basketball. He even coached some of their teams. Even though he doesn’t put too much pressure on them to emulate his success, he still pushes them hard during practice sessions.

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During one such family practice session, Shareef O’Neal revealed his father pushes him hard to be better. That includes backing him down in the low post and dunking on him as well. Shareef added that Shaq would push his brother Shaqir even harder. Shareef is now playing for the G-League side Ignite. It will be interesting to see how well Shaqir does in his college career.