Boxing legend Mike Tyson and 4-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal have had a great friendship throughout the years. Shaq was taking the NBA by storm in the late 1990s, while Iron Mike was already a household name at that point.

Therefore, it was no surprise when ‘Big Diesel’ and Tyson did a candid interview together back in 2020. However, one thing in particular piqued Kid Dynamite’s interest after he was seemingly confused about why O’Neal decided to name his son Shareef. “Tell me this Shaq. Even since I’ve been a kid in Brooklyn, what does Shareef mean? Because everybody I have met named Shareef looked like the cool control guy that always squashed everything, he’s the leader of the community. So what does that mean Shareef?” asked Tyson.

Shaquille O’Neal explains the story behind him and his son’s name to Mike Tyson

However, O’Neal didn’t know the meaning behind his son’s name. He then revealed that because he was born out of wedlock, his family decided to overlook him. His mother would then go on to name him Shaquille, which was an Arabic name. Thus, he decided to give all of his children Arabic names.

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“I’m not sure that means I’ll have to look it up because you know a lot of the kids Mike’s I may overlook but you know when I was coming up my mother had me out of wedlock and the family kind of outcasted us,” O’Neal said while talking about his childhood and his mother.

He further went on and said, “So my mother was walking downtown Newark and she ran across a brother that had a book of names, and in the book of names she’d picked my name. I said she killed this little one in my middle name rush on these water. So my mom was like no matter what happens you’re gonna be my little warrior so my name was an Arabic name.”

“So I only gave all my kids Arabic Muslim names” Thus explaining the story behind him giving all his kids Arabic names.

Tyson is a devout Muslim and follows the religion by heart. Thus, this might be the reason why he was so curious about O’Neal giving his son an Arabic name.

What did you think about the story behind O’Neal’s son’s name? Let us know in the comments.

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