It’s official. On its X account, the Sacramento State basketball program announced what had been the talk of the college basketball world for several hours: the legendary Shaquille O’Neal will be their new general manager, on a volunteer basis, starting this season.
The question is, will his son be able to transition with the Hornets?
Shaqir O’Neal Chances With Sacramento State
Shaqir O’Neal was one of the first recruitments former NBA star and current Sacramento State head coach Mike Bibby made after accepting the position. The son of the legendary “Shaq” arrived during the transfer window from Florida A&M.
𝙎𝙃𝘼𝙌𝙐𝙄𝙇𝙇𝙀 𝙊’𝙉𝙀𝘼𝙇 𝙉𝘼𝙈𝙀𝘿 𝙂𝙀𝙉𝙀𝙍𝘼𝙇 𝙈𝘼𝙉𝘼𝙂𝙀𝙍 𝙊𝙁 𝙎𝘼𝘾𝙍𝘼𝙈𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙊 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙏𝙀 𝙈𝙀𝙉’𝙎 𝘽𝘼𝙎𝙆𝙀𝙏𝘽𝘼𝙇𝙇
Dr. Shaquille O’Neal has agreed to serve as the General Manager of Sacramento State Men’s Basketball. O’Neal joins the program shortly… pic.twitter.com/OxhPhqlRRK
— Sacramento State Men’s Basketball (@SacHornetsMBB) April 29, 2025
The 22-year-old forward has enviable basketball size (6’8” and 200 pounds), but has not received much playing time in his three years in the NCAA.
At Texas Southern (two seasons) and Florida A&M, Shaqir was a backup player and not one of the busy ones. He has played in 70 career games, averaging just 12.4 points per game.
Shaqir has been a solid two-point shooter (44%), but his shooting from the perimeter (29.3%) and on free throws (64.3%) has not been the same. In his NCAA career, he averaged 3.7 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 0.6 assists per game.
However, when he got more opportunities, he improved his record significantly. Last season, he started 17 of the 29 games he played with the Rattlers, although he averaged only 18 minutes per game. Still, he increased his two-point shooting percentage to 50.3%, while shooting 37.5% on three-pointers.
His struggles from the free-throw line continued, as he missed 19 of 52 opportunities (63.5% efficiency). This affected his points per game average, which stood at 6.7.
With this background, fans should not expect Shaqir to become the star of the Hornets overnight, especially when the team has a player like Taj Glover on the roster, who averaged 18 points per game in his high school senior season (2024).
Glover redshirted his first NCAA season when he was in South Florida.
However, it is also a fact that the Hornets currently have only four players on their roster. Therefore, the definition of Shaqir’s place in Bibby’s scheme is still a long way off.
KEEP READING: Brandon Gardner Picks Sacramento State
Shaquille O’Neal is the latest in a trend of current and former NBA players joining NCAA teams. For example, Stephen Curry and Trae Young currently hold assistant general manager positions at Davidson and Oklahoma.
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