HOUSTON — He's not as big as his famous father, but give him some time. Shaqir O'Neal is still growing; not in size, rather the number of people following him on social media.
A 6 foot, 7 inch sophomore forward at Texas Southern, Shaqir is the son of legendary Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal.
“He talks to the team?” we asked
“Yeah, he talks to you, but it's even crazier when he comes around with the fans and stuff,” said Shqir
He chose TSU partly to bring more attention to historically Black colleges and universities, but also because of TSU head coach Johnny Jones, one of Shaquille O’Neal’s coaches at LSU.
“I was very fortunate. His dad and I became very close at LSU,” Jones said.
And Shaqir? He plays around seven minutes a game.
“I think he's done an excellent job of being in the moment and not worrying about, you know, who or how he was raised, his dad," Jones said.
Shaqir's most impressive stat? He’s No. 2 among America's favorite college athlete influencers in a survey of fans compiled by the sports betting site, Oddspedia
Shaqir was interested to learn who else made the list. It included, Bryce Young of Alabama, Caleb Love from North Carolina. Auburn's Suni Lee and UConn's Paige Bueckers.
"They're all dogs,” Shaqir said.
He's right. While some other college athletes have more followers, these favorites – combined - have a reach of more than 6.4 million people on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter; though 3.4 million of those belong to Lee.
Oddspedia claims 60 of those followers are interested in seeing sports content and posts which reveal the athlete's personality.
Shaqir's Instagram feed features mostly basketball photos and videos and recently, ads..
“That's what people want to see you know,” Shaqir said. “They won't see you playing basketball, so that's what I post.”
To him, being influential is inconsequential.