“I’m Not Going to Make It”: Having Battled Rare Fatal Disease, Shaquille O’Neal’s Lesser-Known Son Leaving Painful Details of Life-Threatening Event

NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has faced his share of struggles throughout his life. Never could he have guessed, however, that a time would come when his own son would be in a situation that would put him in a matter of life and death.

Shaq’s son, who himself has followed in the footsteps of his father, recently opened up about suffering through a fatal disease and how he recovered from the same.

Scared of what would happen, Shaquille O’Neal’s son lost confidence

Shaq’s eldest son, 23-year-old Shareef O’Neal, recently sat down for an interview on the podcast Now For Later with Eric Mika, talking about the open-heart surgery he had to get back in 2018 after getting diagnosed with a ‘right anomalous coronary artery’.

What Shareef was about to go through didn’t hit him until a few days before the surgery. Even though the athlete talked about crying when he was first told about it, he didn’t think about it much during the two-month gap between being told about the surgery and the operation itself. The time he spent with his family during that period kept him distracted.

Once he was on the plane to Stanford, the emotions came rushing back. From “I’m not going to make it through the surgery” to believing “I’m never gonna play basketball”, Shareef imagined every scenario in his head.

After the procedure was done and over with, Shareef described his confidence to be completely gone when he tried to get up and walk on his own. “They had to kind of reteach me how to walk again because I tried to get up on my own just to use the bathroom and I just fell down on the floor,” said Shareef.

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From dunking basketballs a week ago to needing support even in taking a few steps, the LSU legend had a crisis in his own mind about where the future would take him after this.

Shareef wanted to gain some weight after the surgery

When talking about the first steps to recovery, Shareef placed emphasis on how he wanted to gain some weight. Going from “215 to 170” just from the surgery, the young player had lost his appetite and had to be force-fed. Due to his weakness, Shareef wasn’t allowed to carry anything above a certain amount of weight.

“If I was to overwork, then the wires in my sternum could be crooked or they could kind of just break off on their own.”

Going on walks was the only exercise the player was strong enough to engage himself in. Shareef’s mom and Shaq’s ex-wife, Shaunie Nelson, helped him through this process.

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Despite all that he faced, Shareef O’Neal is up and about now and has gained success as a power forward for the NBA G League Ignite. All doubts that the young player faced are gone and only success awaits him in the journey ahead.