Calling Shaquille O’Neal the most dominant player the NBA has ever seen is boring. That may be true, but it’s been so overused that the big guy’s other accomplishments have been swept under the rug. Shareef O’Neal also expressed his opinion on his father’s underrated accomplishments and confessed that he doesn’t reveal that his father was an NBA player when meeting new people.

Appearing on the “At the Buzzer” podcast, Shareef said that he uses his father’s film and commercial roles to try to give people an idea of ​​who he is. Shaq’s time in the NBA, and after, was filled with appearances in films, talk shows and television commercials.

But despite his lengthy Hollywood resume, while respectfully ignoring Kazaam and Steel, O’Neal’s role in Grown Ups is one of his most memorable stints and it seems his son Shareef feels it too.

Shareef explained how, during an interaction with a woman, he used Shaq’s appearance from the movie Grown Ups to try to explain who his father was.

“I always try to like a commercial or a movie he was in. Think about the last one, the lady, she said to me, ‘I don’t recognize him,’ and I said to her, ‘Have you ever seen Grown Ups or Grown Ups 2?’ and she said ‘Yes’. I’m like, ‘You know the cop who’s really tall, like he’s tall, dark-skinned?’ and she says ‘Yes, he’s a funny character!’ and I’m like, ‘That’s my dad.’

He added that he wasn’t counting on his father’s fame to run either. When the host wanted to know how Shareef would introduce himself to someone who had never heard of him, he said he normally would. His tone made it seem like he would rather let them find out when they wanted, rather than be obnoxious about his father’s fame.

“I don’t talk about it, if people don’t know who I am, I don’t talk about it at all, like I never tell them. They just have to find out when they find out, so I just tell them who I am.

Shareef has always been hesitant to reveal his father’s identity to people unfamiliar with the NBA. In fact, he even actively hid it to ensure that people wouldn’t treat him differently when he was a child.

Shareef hid his father’s identity

Early 2023 interviewShareef revealed that at school, he tried to hide his father’s identity so that his friends and teachers would not treat him differently from other students. His mother Shaunie Henderson attended all the parent-teacher conferences and he said they planned them meticulously.

“What not many people know about me is that no one knew who my father was at any of my schools until I was 15 or 16. At all the parent-teacher conferences, it was just my mother who came. It was a set plan. We just hid it so people wouldn’t treat us differently.

He mentioned that he managed to hide Shaq’s identity until he was almost 16, and people only found out after the big guy attended a basketball game that Shareef was playing.

“But when basketball season started, people started filming the games. There was a little game, at 8 a.m. my father came and someone filmed it. They posted it on YouTube and that’s it, everyone knew.

Of course, growing up as Shaq’s son meant he enjoyed many advantages, including being a world-class basketball coach. He continued the same career path as his father, but unfortunately, open heart surgery in 2018 kept him from reaching the big leagues. Shareef currently plays in the G-League, for the Stockton Kings, who are the affiliate team of the NBA’s Sacramento Kings.