Shaqir O’Neal, the son of Basketball Hall of Famer Shaq, is hitting the transfer portal after his first season at his new HBCU.
O’Neal is coming off the best season of his college career at Florida A&M, where he averaged 6.2 points and 3.7 rebounds per game. That included seven double-figure scoring outputs after having just one in his first two seasons. He scored a career-high 26 points against Trinity Baptist and scored 20 against Trinity, as well as a couple of double-figure games against SWAC competition. Shaq showed up in Atlanta to watch his son play in the SWAC Tournament earlier this month.
Listed as 6’7, 201 pounds, Shaqir O’Neal was a three-star prospect in the Class of 2021 out of Union Grove Senior High School in Georgia and signed with another HBCU, Texas Southern. He redshirted the 2021-2022 season and made his college debut against San Francisco in Nov 2022. He played in 20 games during the 2022-2023 season, averaging 1.4 points per game in just over seven minutes of action per contest. The best game of his Texas Southern career came against North American when he scored 12 points with 7 rebounds and 4 assists in 28 minutes.
Shaqir’s head coach at Texas Southern was Johnny Jones, who has close ties to Shaq. He talked about how much Shaqir had improved heading into the previous season.
“One of the new guys that we’re really happy and excited about is Shaqir O’Neal,” Jones said. “I think people that hadn’t had an opportunity to see his offseason workouts – I think he’s done an awesome job in transitioning in the last two years and we’re looking forward to him making an impact with us and for us as well.”
Shaqir averaged 1.8 points and 1.8 rebounds per game in 20 appearances during the 2023-2024 season. He played a season-high 23 minutes against Creighton and had his best game against Biblical Studies when he scored nine points and hit two three-pointers for the HBCU squad.
Will Shaqir land at an HBCU for a third time or will he look for a PWI? Stay tuned for the latest updates from the transfer portal.