Gainesville is the big winner this week. The city kicked off the holiday season with a Very GNV Holiday parade on Saturday led by their honorary grand marshall, Shaquille O’Neal. After riding a firetruck across the city, the big man extended his stay to watch the next big star of women’s basketball throw it down in Exactech Arena. This star of the Gators squad happens to be his youngest daughter, Me’Arah O’Neal. While Shaq had an early holiday celebration with Me’Arah in Gainesville, his ex, Shaunie squeezed in some family time with the older kids during a romantic getaway.

The Florida Gators took on the Marshall Thundering Herd on Sunday, a day after the host city’s holiday parade. The parade’s grand marshall was in the arena to cheer his daughter and her team.

With Shaq watching, the Gator ladies beat Marshall 82-63 to clinch its third consecutive win. Florida’s strong performance came from its formidable offensive in Ra Shaya Kyle, Liv McGill, and Me’Arah O’Neal. Four of the Gators even recorded double digits each. Meezy and Kyle were 100% from the field and accounted for 11 points in a strong second quarter.

There were instances like when Meezy did an emphatic block in the second quarter, and Shaq was extremely pleased. And he said he avoided his kids’ games because they’d mess up under the pressure of his presence. But Ma’Arah also made a three-point (something she does better than her dad) and took a thrilling rebound in the same play. She ended the evening with 7 points and 6 rebounds across 15 minutes.

It’s a big deal for the city of Gainesville and its representative Gators who lost to Marshall last season. With O’Neal and McGill’s addition, Florida is making a strong comeback in the SEC. The icing is Shaq balancing family time with his busy schedules.

Shaq and Shaunie make a balanced cheer squad

At the start of the NCAA season, Shaq and Shaunie had a bit of a balancing act to pull with two college players in two Florida schools. The NBA legend attended the FAMU Rattlers’ game to cheer on Shaqir while Shaunie attended Meezy’s debut college game. Shaunie was also, however, watching Shaqir on Facetime.

Shaunie has been cheering on both her youngest kids through social media while Shaquille O’Neal debunked his own claim that he doesn’t attend his kids games. She, however, let her ex-husband handle this one while she and her husband, Keion Henderson, took a vacation to Dubai. Their eldest kids, Myles and Amirah, joined them with the social media posts of their yacht to prove it. Me’arah and Shaqir are not in this vacation for obvious reasons.

The Gainesville parade presented the right opportunity for Shaq to cheer Meezy on in person. After a few dud games, she showed up with highlight-worthy moments with her father watching.

The Gators official page shared these second quarter highlights and both Shaunie and Keion were hyping her in the comments. Even Meezy’s eldest sister, Taahirah, was boasting on her own page. Shaunie cried for her ‘babygirl’ on Instagram but Me’arah shared the cute moments of her mom’s yacht vacay with sweet emojis.

With the SEC tournament coming up, the Meezy-Liv combination is proving to be the Gators’ winning factors while seniors play from both ends of the field. The Gators’ next game is on December 15 but it’s unlikely Shaq would be able to leave TNT’s NBA Cup broadcasts to attend it.