“It Was Unacceptable”: Shaquille O’Neal, Who Was F***ed Up in School, Was Left Fuming With His Children’s Grades

Charity begins at home, as the old adage goes. And since education is a huge part of the causes Shaquille O’Neal supports, he ensured his kids followed it too. The $400 million rich NBA legend and multi-hyphenate is a new investor in the edtech space. After all, he’s always upheld education. O’Neal’s principles came from his parents and the father of six is keeping it up in his own parenting. Far from spoiling his kids, he raised his expectations to match the advancing times.

The O’Neal kids were given no quarter when it came to school, the same way young Diesel was schooled by his strict parents. Shaq would state at TechCrunch Disrupt that he pursued higher education to impress his parents. And he expected the same from his kin.

Shaquille O’Neal’s kids had to impress him

Edsoma, an AI-powered reading and communication app got Shaquille O’Neal on board as an investor because the purpose-driven startup aligned with his beliefs. Armed with at least three college degrees, Shaq has always done his part to further education. It wasn’t enough to upgrade himself, the Los Angeles Lakers legend had to ensure his children prioritize education too.

At TechCrunch Disrupt, the four-time champion revealed that one of his six children really disappointed him once. “You know one of my kids came home with a C.” Shaq’s response to the poor grade was, “It was unacceptable.”

Shaq didn’t say who among Myles, Taahirah, Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir, and Me’Arah upset him with their grades.

His kid however asked why the C was so bad. “I said ‘well, my only source was an encyclopedia that you had to borrow from a neighbor. You guys got Chat GPT, you got Google, you got all these sources that can give you the information you need, it’s no excuse.”

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Shaq joked he would rely on “The Dummies Guide to Starting Your Own Business” to learn financial literacy.  He also paid for 15 friends to earn an MBA with him. O’Neal was one of the earliest investors in Google and he’s now investing in Edsoma.

Through his investments, he’s ensuring the younger generation has better resources than he had. The 2000 NBA MVP has time and again stated his children won’t get free access to his vast fortune. He expects them to pave their own path. His strong beliefs came from his own parents.

Shaq’s dad drove him to be better

US Army Sergeant, Phillip Harrison would often come up at Shaq’s talk.

His stepfather prioritized education so much, that he wasn’t impressed with the NBA star’s titles or his starring role in Kazaam. But he was happy when Shaq went back to LSU and got his bachelor’s degree. Shaq went on record to reveal the only instance he rebelled against Harrison.

That was when he decided to cut short his college career and enter the 1992 NBA draft. “Go home. Same Argument. Man, f*k that. They f**ing me up in school. I’m going. And it was the first time he looked back at me and he realized he had created a man,” O’Neal recalled.

Shaq both admired and feared his dad. He’s been vocal that his expects his kids to prove themselves the same way he proved himself to Harrison.

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