The LSU Tigers currently have one of the most exciting players in all of college basketball in Ben Simmons. Simmons is almost assuredly going to be the number one pick in the next NBA Draft but another former Tiger who went number one overall has made some headlines recently, but for the wrong reasons. Shaquille O'Neal attended LSU from 1989-1992 and played there for three seasons before making the jump to the NBA. Shaq says that while he was at LSU he was "paid very well," according to Mike Bresnahan of the Los Angeles Times.
O'Neal was certainly a big time recruit coming out of high school in Texas as he was the number one center in his class so a lot of programs likely wanted to get their hands on him. It is unclear if Shaq was being serious when he said he was paid very well as he was reportedly laughing when he made the statement but he added that "the statute of limitations is up."
Shaq is right considering he has been out of college for almost 25 years now but making a statement like this still doesn't make him look very good. After making that statement about his college experience he then shifted the focus to his son Shareef O'Neal who is a four-star forward in the class of 2018. O'Neal is still just a sophomore in high school but he is already 6-foot-8 and is ranked as the 48th best player and 17th best power forward in the 2018 class, according to 247 Sports.
O'Neal has offers from Baylor, LSU, UCLA, USC and Kansas State so far but if it were up to his dad he will be heading to LSU to follow in his father's footsteps, both on the court and off the court. "You can probably get a house, you can get two cars. I'll set it up for you, I know some people," said Shaq about Shareef attending LSU, according to Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News.
As of right now 247 Sports seems to think that UCLA is the favorite to land the younger O'Neal but there is still a long way to go in his recruitment. Shaq will clearly have some sort of influence on him considering he is his dad but there is always the possibility that Shareef doesn't want to live under his father's shadow. As for Shaq saying he was paid very well while at LSU, only he really knows the truth at this point but it certainly wouldn't be a very big surprise.
