Children inherit various traits from their parents. While NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal’s son, Myles, isn’t his biological child, he definitely picked up his adoptive father’s playful energy. As the eldest son, he often roughed up his younger brothers — until a pivotal moment in sixth grade changed the way he treated them forever.
Myles O’Neal has five siblings. At 28, he is the second-oldest among the O’Neal clan after sister Taahira, who is turning 29 in July. They have two younger brothers, Shareef (25) and Shaqir (22), and two younger sisters, Amirah (23) and Me’arah (19).
Myles is the son of Shaq’s ex-wife, Shaunie. Shaq legally adopted him in 2007, and all three boys share a very close relationship, despite only being half brothers. The three played constantly as children, with Myles often taking advantage of his seniority. But when the younger brothers hit their growth spurts, the dynamic shifted.
“I used to torture them while I could,” Myles said in an appearance on the Cheat Codes Podcast. “In trampoline basketball, and then once I was like, ‘You can dunk now,’ I was like, ‘Let’s just stop playing.'”
Though he adopted plenty of Shaq’s personality traits, Myles doesn’t have the privilege of The Diesel’s genetics. Myles is still relatively tall at 6-foot-3, but Shareef towers over him at 6-foot-10, and Shaqir stands 6-foot-8.
When the O’Neal boys were children, Myles could assert his dominance in trampoline basketball. When he reached sixth grade, though, his younger siblings grew tall enough to dunk on a standard basketball net, and gone were his glory days.
Nonetheless, Myles is very proud of his younger siblings. At times, he can’t fathom the rate at which they continue to mature. This was evident when Myles found out his sister was using a dating app.
“You go on dates??? Yeah, I’m bout to crash,” Myles commented under her Instagram post.
Myles’ comments stemmed from disbelief rather than anger. Me’arah is the baby of the family, so it must be surreal for him to witness her blossoming into a young adult. Regardless, Myles loves his siblings dearly, even if he can’t win a game of trampoline basketball anymore.
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