Report: Lakers division rivals sign Shaq’s son in strategic move

The Sacramento Kings reportedly signed Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal’s son Shareef to a contract on Friday. There’s a catch though, as Sacramento allegedly plans to waive the younger O’Neal on Saturday and have him join up with the team’s G League affiliate in the Stockton Kings.

The younger O’Neal played for the same team his father won three titles with — the Lakers — in Summer League back in 2022. He shot 44.4 percent from the field across four games with the storied franchise.

Not long after his Summer League stint with the Lakers, he signed with the G League Ignite and spent the 2022-23 campaign with the team. He was teammates with Scoot Henderson, who was later selected by the Portland Trail Blazers with the No. 3 overall pick in the 2023 NBA Draft.

The younger O’Neal was a quality backup big man across 20 regular-season games with the Ignite. He averaged 5.6 points while shooting 53.2 percent from the field coupled with 3.1 rebounds and 0.7 blocks per game. The 24-year-old also appeared in 11 Showcase Cup games with the team.

While the younger O’Neal has yet to solidify himself as an NBA-caliber player like his father was, perhaps he will by putting up big numbers in Stockton.

Lakers fans likely aren’t thrilled that one of the team’s rivals in the Western Conference in the Kings have inked the younger O’Neal to a contract — even if he’ll soon be waived by Sacramento — in part because of his dad’s incredibly memorable stint in Los Angeles.

For much of the elder O’Neal’s time with the Lakers, he was seemingly the most dominant player in the league. He averaged 25-plus points and 10-plus rebounds per game in seven of his eight seasons in Los Angeles. Plus, the elder O’Neal and Kobe Bryant formed one of the more successful duos in the history of the league, as no team has won three titles in a row since the Lakers did with that tandem leading the way in the early 2000s.