Shareef O’neal Knows He Has Big—like Size 22 Big—shoes To Fill. And Yet, The Wise-beyond-his-years Ucla Commit Doesn’t Care Much, Tbh. He Just Wants To Do Him.
HYPE IS A TRIP. It can build you up, flood your IG and knight you a member of the chosen elite overnight. It can also call you overrated just as quickly. It’s something Shareef O’Neal—son of, yup, you guessed it—has dealt with his whole life.
“Just because of the name I have, the last name I carry, I feel like people are expecting me to do a lot of things,” he says. “If I don’t live up to those expectations, then I’m hyped up and overrated.” OK, how’s this for hype: at 18 years old, O’Neal just wrapped his senior season at Santa Monica’s Crossroads School. With it, he collected both a California State Division II title (he dropped 29 and 17 in the title game) and the John R. Wooden Award for POY, and is committed to play at UCLA next season. He also stands a towering 6-10, can rain down threes and put you on the wrong end of a very shareable dunk GIF. Oh, and he’s extremely coachable.
Actually, that ain’t hype; that’s just Shareef.
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