When Shareef O’Neal made his decision to declare for the 2022 NBA Draft and begin conducting workouts with teams in the coming weeks, it was not something that his father Shaquille O’Neal, agreed with.

“We kind of bump heads about this process,” O’Neal said, via ESPN. “He wanted me to stay in school. I wanted to better myself through this. He knows I’m working out with teams. But I’m not going to lie, we ain’t talked about this. I’m kind of just going through it. He didn’t do any pre-draft workouts; he just got straight on the [Orlando Magic], so it’s a different grind.”

While Shareef wanted his father’s support, he thinks this was the right path. 

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“It sucks that he didn’t like that idea, but I’m a grown man, I’m 22 years old, I can make my own decisions,” he added.

The former four-star recruit originally committed to UCLA out of high school. During his collegiate career, he totaled just 37 games over three seasons with UCLA and LSU.

“I feel like me and him have a whole different story now,” O’Neal said when asked if he felt any pressure following his father’s legacy. “I went through some things that he didn’t go through. He was the No. 1 pick in the draft. I kind of had to grind to get here. I had to grind a lot. I had to go through some stuff these past four years — foot injuries, heart surgeries — and I don’t really look to be in his shadow.”

Shareef, who is a power forward at 6-foot-10, 215 pounds, said he was determined to stay in the draft after participating in the G League elite prospect camp last month.

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“I felt like in college I wasn’t getting enough opportunity. I wasn’t feeling like myself in college,” he said. “[The invite] kind of opened a lot of doors for me. … I feel like it really brought me back and kind of showed a little bit what I can do. And once I started getting calls from teams to work out, I was like, ‘Man, this is what I want to do.’ I mean I’m here, it’s right in front of me, so just go for it. So I continued to work.”

However, his father did not like the idea.

“He didn’t like that idea at all,” O’Neal said. “It sucks that he didn’t like that idea, but I’m a grown man, I’m 22 years old, I can make my own decisions. It was right in front of my face. I’m not backing up from it. I’m going to go get it if I see it. That’s just how I’m built. I take everything the same way. I took my heart surgery the same way. Being cleared was right in front of me, being healthy was right in front of me, and I went for it. I’m not backing down from nobody. I know he’s an NBA legend, I know he’s my dad, but it was right in front of me, I had to go get it. So, if he likes it or not, it’s not really going to stop me from doing what I want to do.”