When ‘Shaq’ and ‘Dray’ sat across each other on The Big Podcast, dad jokes abounded. Shaquille O’Neal finally got Draymond Green on his show to talk about the good, bad, and ugly. Yet Shaq couldn’t resist the few jokes between one very heartfelt moment. It happened when Green was describing his kids’ reaction to his on-court drama. What may have started as an innocuous question from O’Neal escalated to a headcount of kids.

Shaq interrupted Green to ask, “How many [kids] you got?” Unlike Shaq who tends to forget how many kids he has, Green says, “Four of them.” O’Neal promptly said, “Slow down.” Even Green joked, “No chance I’m catching you.”

O’Neal has raised six kids – the eldest Taahirah O’Neal from his previous relationship with Arnetta Yardbourgh, four kids with ex-wife, Shaunie Henderson, and adopted Shaunie’s eldest Myles.

Green claims he won’t go as high as the O’Neal brood but he’s made a blended family like ‘Shaq’ too. He has a son Draymond Green Jr. better known as DJ. He and his wife, Hazel Renee have a daughter, Cash Green (born 2020) and he’s also dad to her daughter, Olive. Cash and DJ famously bring cuteness to the post-game pressers. But it does look like Green has his hands full. He wouldn’t want to lose count like Shaq.

The O’Neal gang could be bigger than you think

Officially, Taahirah, Myles, Shareef, Amirah, Shaqir, and Me’Arah are the O’Neal kids. But there’s a running joke in Shaq-lore that they have a dozen siblings. It started with Charles Barkley joking on TNT that ‘Shaq’ would need a whole section of the arena to accommodate his alleged 17 kids. The joke went viral and was addressed later on an older episode of The Big Podcast in 2023. His then co-hosts quipped that Chuck’s ballpark might be a humble estimate. O’Neal probably had at least 25 kids. ‘Shaq’ leaned into it and joked, “You never know.”

He’s had more instances of reinforcing the urban legend, toeing the line between truth and reality deftly. The known six kids are very close to each other obvious from instances of Shaqir saying Taahirah is as beautiful as her mom or Myles and Taahirah fighting for Shareef’s attention. They’re most united in ganging up on their dad, be it on the court or with mischief.

Internet trolls have gone after Shaq’s kids on some occasions. Most recently Taahirah ‘cutely’ shut down a hater who accused her of being apart from Shaq’s other children. With kids like these, ‘Shaq’ doesn’t have to keep up.