Florida is going to be brimming with O’Neals again. After Shaquille O’Neal’s memorable time in Orlando and Miami, Gainesville and Tallahassee are getting their own O’Neals. The youngest of the fam, Me’Arah O’Neal, committed to the University of Florida in 2023 and is expected to start this year. Meanwhile, her ‘twin’ Shaqir O’Neal entered the transfer portal. He’s recently confirmed his transfer to Florida A&M University after three seasons at Texas Southern University. Unlike the athletically dominant Big Aristotle‘s NBA persona, his children all have different playing styles and positions, partially influenced by each other. How different is Shaqir from his dad as an athlete?

Shaq once called his youngest son his ‘mini-me’ on The Big Podcast regarding their personalities. And a lot of pressure follows his youngest kids to live up to his legacy, though Shaq tries to protect them from it. Now Shaqir’s fresh start prompts a discussion of a prospective career in the NBA.

Shaqir stands out from his dad, Shaquille O’Neal

While Myles O’Neal is an entertainer and musician and Taahirah is business savvy like Shaq, the youngest kids of Shaq and Shaunie Henderson are the more athletically inclined ones. But they differ vastly from him. None of them have been a lower-post presence like him throughout their student lives. 6’8″, 201 lbs Shaqir is a forward and not a center. He was perimeter-oriented at TSU.

Having gone to high school in Georgia (where Shaq is based due to his job at TNT) and California, he entered college as a three-star recruit ranked 284 nationally. He had an offer from Duke too but TSU had an O’Neal connection. The program’s coach, Johnny Jones, was an assistant at LSU during Shaq’s college career.

During his last college season at TSU, he hit 6 of 21 attempts from the 3-point line and averaged 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds in 9.6 minutes per game. He red-shirted in the 2021-22 season and debuted for TSU in 2022-23. In one of his games that season, he scored a career-best 12 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. However, that’s nowhere close to his father’s time in college.

Shaquille O’Neal played three seasons at LSU before he was the no.1 pick of the 1992 NBA draft. With the LSU Tigers, he averaged 21.6 points per game, 13.5 rebounds per game, and 4.6 blocks per game. He was also a McDonald’s All-American, a feat only his daughter, Me’Arah, repeated in 2024. Shaq declared his daughter a future WNBA superstar when she was 10. But he’s kept the pressure on his sons to a minimum.

Shareef was the first of the six O’Neal kids to flirt with the NBA. After bouncing back from congenital heart disease, he went undrafted and played in the G-League. His NBA career never manifested but after a hiatus from basketball, he’s now returning to The Tournament under Shaq’s team. After Bronny James entered the league, Shaq admitted it’s tougher for their kids to enter the league. His hope for his sons is to be themselves and not have to match him.

His kids definitely understand his sentiment. Shaqir is projected for the 2025 draft and his season at FAMU might decide his odds. But he’s had trouble being a definitive presence within a team. That’s where he’s expected to shine among the Rattlers.

The O’Neal name presents renewed hope for the Rattlers

The FAMU Rattlers are undergoing a major overhaul. They signed a six-year deal with Nike in 2021 to wear LeBron James-branded gear. Since then, the school has been revamping the men’s basketball team with big moves. Newly appointed Head Coach Patrick Crarey is heading into the new season with a new roster to make it as far as the Southwestern Athletic Conference.

The team has nine new recruits to meet the big lack of physicality on the roster. And physicality is synonymous with an O’Neal. Sure, Shaqir is not DIESEL-sized but the Rattlers signed 6’10” prospect Shannon Grant among other bigs.

The Rattlers start their season in November with the intent to match the teams that previously outsized them like Oregon. Shaqir remains in the SWAC and will play against his former school in the future. He stays lowkey about any NBA plans and is seeking to be known by his own name, which makes his upcoming season with the Rattlers a lot more important.

Stay tuned for more such updates, and to follow what Shaq’s ex-agent, Leonard Armato, has to say about the infamous Shaq-Kobe feud, Caitlin Clark’s Olympic snub, and more, watch this video.