In the span of six years, Shareef O’Neal has played in college, gone through the NBA draft, went to the G-League, and is now back on the court via the Sacramento Kings. A lot has been said about Shaquille O’Neal’s son not exactly matching his dad’s legacy. But not enough is spoken about what Shareef fought through at a young age. For the first time, Shareef revealed the striking visuals of a life-altering moment. This was before he declared himself ‘Zipper Bow.’

Shareef O’Neal was only 18 when he was diagnosed with an anomalous coronary artery and underwent open heart surgery. As the sixth anniversary of his surgery draws close, he shared a clip of one of his games on his Instagram Stories. He was still a teen then at Crossroads High School in California.

During the game, his heart apparently gave him trouble that he was hunched over and looking bent out of shape than his peers. He describes, “This was the exact moment I realized something wasn’t right with my heart (I didn’t know I had a problem) … I had to lock back in and finish the game tho.” He added a laughing emoji in the end, though it’s hard to find humor in it.

Shareef’s condition was a trying time for his family, as Shaquille O’Neal and Shaunie Henderson have revealed on multiple occasions. He displayed concerning symptoms during the 2018 summer practices at UCLA and had to wear a heart monitor. By September, UCLA announced that he would miss the Bruins’ 2018 season due to health reasons.

In this game in question, Shareef was yet to find out he had a congenital heart defect where the artery was in the wrong position. In December 2018, he had surgery to treat and spent the rest of the season recovering but also slowly making his way back to the court. He’d dub himself “Zipper Boy” on his social media because of his surgical scar and keep a positive, inspiring mindset. “1 year healthy.. 261 days since cleared to start training again.. the comeback still coming,” he wrote announcing his comeback in 2019.

Shareef O’Neal makes his dad proud

Shareef recently revealed an incident when he was watching a college game with Shaq during his recovery. His dad, “just looked at me and was like, ‘Don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t do something.‘” That mindset stuck with him though he admits he wasn’t doing so great academically. While Shareef was a dominant dunker at Crossroads, he didn’t have a breakout season in college. He transferred from UCLA to LSU but stayed on the college track to be able to go pro.

Shareef went undrafted in the 2022 NBA draft and joined the Lakers. He spent the 2022 season in the G-League but took a break in 2023. At that time, critics and analysts didn’t believe Shaquille O’Neal’s son could have a professional career.

He was close to leaving for Australia, but O’Neal convinced him to stay for a special reason. Shareef was one of the first people to find out about Shaq returning to Reebok as an executive before the official announcement. One of the first things Big Diesel did as the president of the basketball division was to include Shareef in the rebranding process.

Shareef’s first project, the Reebok Engine A, was unveiled by Angel Reese at one of her WNBA games this year. Shortly after, the Sacramento Kings signed Shareef to a one-year contract but he was waived the next day and sent to the G-League again to the Stockton Kings.

While he pursues his hoop dreams, Shareef continues to be an inspiration. Apart from donating his NIL earnings to the American Heart Association, he just wrapped up a celebrity basketball exhibition and runway show to raise funds for the same cause. This is the kind of thing that makes Shaq a proud dad over people praising Shareef’s basketball skills.