Shareef O'Neal plans to step out of father Shaq's large shadow

ST. LOUIS – When you are Shareef O'Neal and your father Shaquille O'Neal, it is tough to find normalcy.

On top of that, his training partner/coach is some guy named Kobe Bryant.

The younger O'Neal, a four-star junior-to-be from Los Angeles, is 6-foot-8 and 205 pounds with a 7-foot wingspan. Simply put, he already looks the part. At Nike's Elite 100 in St. Louis last weekend he also showed he's a springy athlete who is quick around the rim and has touch to the three-point line.

And when he spoke, he sounded as if he's driven to create his own legacy.

"I'm just trying to make a name for myself so people can forget the 'He's Shaq's son' label and just label me as Shareef," he said.

O'Neal, ranked No. 70 in the class of 2018, is going to make a big jump when his class gets a rankings update within the next month. With the Elite 100 out of the way, he's planning to get back into the gym and continue to work on his game.

Helping him with that game is his father's former teammate and another NBA legend, Kobe Bryant.

"When I first started (training with Bryant), I realized that it wasn't anything normal so I wanted to go all out because it's not anything that any regular person can do," O'Neal said. "I'm not saying I'm different than anybody, but I have the privilege to train with one of my dad's best friends who is one of the greatest basketball players to ever live and play the game.

"I'm just blessed to have the opportunity so I don't take it for granted."

Of course, O'Neal also spends time working on his game with his father. What's surprising is that his father still hasn't taught him the post moves that made him so dominant.

"With my dad it's weird because he doesn't really teach me post moves," O'Neal said. "He kind of just makes me shoot around. He says that once I get taller and bigger he's going to start teaching me post moves. Now he says I'm like a center or forward who can play the perimeter and also score in the paint. This summer he's probably going to teach me how to play in the post."

So far, O'Neal's play has earned scholarship offers from LSU – where his father played – UCLA, USC, Arizona, Baylor, California, Kansas State and Washington State. Not surprisingly, his dad is hoping for LSU but the younger O'Neal said that his father also likes Duke, Kentucky and Michigan State as options should they come calling.

"It's going to be 100 percent my decision," he said. "... I know my mom wants me to stay close to her and my dad wants me to go wherever I'm going to play best, but I'm always going to talk to them. If I'm going to make the decision, which will probably be next year, to commit then I will probably go through them first."

With his college decision still at least a year away, along with his expanding game and incredible sense of self-awareness, O'Neal seems ready for the scrutiny that he's going to face.

He's also prepared to make good on his desire to create his own identity as a player.

"I know it's going to be tough," he said. "A kid here actually mentioned that because people were like blah, blah, blah, that's Shaq's son or whatever. He was like 'Does it bother you that people call you Shaq's son?'

"I never really thought about it like that because people just said it and it was coming from everybody I saw out in public. So I was thinking about it before I went to sleep and now I'm trying to make a name for myself.

"Like why can't they just call me Shareef or say he's Shareef O'Neal's dad?"