Shaquille O’neal’s son, Shareef, may only be 16 years young, but the fact that he intends to train with Lakers great, Kobe Bryant, shows how seriously he already takes the game of basketball
When players come to the Lakers, the one thing that never fails to amaze me is how little of them utilize the team’s greatest training tool of all: the Purple and Gold’s vast expanse of NBA legends.
This is to say, it’s befuddling when players don’t get to Los Angeles and immediately call up the Magic Johnsons or Kareem Abdul-Jabbars to schedule training sessions. This was why when news that D’Angelo Russell would be training with Magic this offseason hit, fans were ecstatic.
For Shaquille O’Neal‘s son, Shareef, this doesn’t seem to be a problem at all, as he recently told TMZ Sports that he intends to train with Kobe Bryant this summer, despite not even playing the same position.
In the short one minute interview, Shareef dished on the relationship between his father and Kobe saying that, “They don’t have a problem with each other. They’re cool, they’ll call each other up and text each other,” and that he hopes Kobe joins his dad on Inside the NBA.
Curiously enough, the 6’9, 16 year old also revealed that it was actually the Black Mamba who said that Shareef needed to train with him when they met up in Toronto during All-Star Weekend.
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It is interesting to see Kobe take a player under his wing, as he wasn’t known for doing this during his illustrious 20 year career, though he did flash signs of a nurturing side in his final season with he Lakers.
Shareef may only be a sophomore, but will definitely draw interest from NBA scouts going forward. At 6’9 and growing, Shareef is currently more LaMarcus Aldridge than Shaq in terms of both body type and style of play, but who knows what his game could evolve into in the future.
The younger O’Neal plays high school ball in Los Angeles at Windward High School and has already gotten offers from UCLA and USC, but how uncanny would it be if the Lakers were able to draft O’Neal come say the 2020 draft?
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Seeing how Kobe currently has no heir to the NBA throne, seeing an O’Neal back in a Lakers’ jersey would be a strange but welcomed turn of events to say the least.