Rec Sports
Why Shaquille O’Neal Doesn’t Want His 7 Kids to Play Basketball
Shaquille O’Neal is hoping his kids will take a shot at something different. The basketball legend, who is dad to Taahirah, 28—whom he shares with former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh—and Myles, 28, Shareef, 25, Amirah, 23, Shaqir, 22, and Me’arah, 19, whom he shares with ex-wife Shaunie Henderson, recently revealed that he has always told his children, “We don’t […]
Shaquille O’Neal is hoping his kids will take a shot at something different.
The basketball legend, who is dad to Taahirah, 28—whom he shares with former girlfriend Arnetta Yardbourgh—and Myles, 28, Shareef, 25, Amirah, 23, Shaqir, 22, and Me’arah, 19, whom he shares with ex-wife Shaunie Henderson, recently revealed that he has always told his children, “We don’t need another basketball player. At all.”
“So if you want to play basketball, cool, but please go to law school,” he said on the May 23 episode of Today. “Please go to medical school. Please be an engineer. Please be an AI inventor. Just do something else.”
Shaquille added, “So I give them freedom to be who they are. I never press them.”
The 53-year-old explained that his adult children will only benefit from his success if they choose to work hard themselves.
“In order to touch daddy’s cheese,” he joked, “you got to show me two or three degrees.”