The Los Angeles Lakers have signed Shaquille O’Neal’s and Scottie Pippen’s sons in a two-way contract.
Shareef O’ Neal, 22, will play for the Lakers in next month’s Summer League, according to PEOPLE.
Shareef, who is the son of Lakers legend Shaquille O’ Neal, told the outlet that his father didn’t want him to enter the draft this year.
“I went through some things that he didn’t go through. He was the No. 1 pick in the draft. I kind of had to grind to get here. I had to grind a lot. I had to go through some stuff these past four years – foot injuries, heart surgeries,” the young athlete revealed.
“He wanted me to stay in school,” he said. “He knows I’m working out with teams. But I’m not going to lie, we ain’t talked about this. I’m kind of just going through it.”
After getting the invite, Shareef posted a video of himself on Twitter, showing himself as a young boy in a replica of his father’s No. 34 Lakers jersey…
His caption read: ‘Thank you for this opportunity @Lakers!’
Whereas, Scotty Jr’s tweet was similar and said:
“Dreams come true. Let’s get to work #lakeshow.”
According to the Daily Mail, Scotty Jr has averaged 17.5 points, 4.3 assists and 1.6 steals during his time at university.
But that wasn’t all, his mom, Larsa Pippen, expressed her excitement at her son’s big achievement…
The Real Housewives of Miami star shared an image of her 21-year-old son in his Vanderbilt Commodores uniform with the word “Lakers” emblazoned above his head.
“Congrats my love!!!” the reality television personality wrote in the caption of her Instagram post.Â
Larsa later posted a video on Instagram showing her ex-husband crying as he embraced Scotty and other family members.
Scotty didn’t cry but did “pop some champagne after signing his new two-way contract,” the Daily Mail reports.
Apart from their familiar last names, the two players don’t have much in common with their Hall of Fame dads…
While Shareef never averaged more than three points a game in any season, Scotty Jr played significant minutes at Vanderbilt — but still couldn’t match his father’s height of 6 foot 7.
Surprisingly, both their fathers haven’t played together in the NBA.