Mearah O’Neal is an 8th grade Phenom

The power of DNA and family genes are on display.. Shaquille O’Neal’s young daughter is showing off some serious basketball skills. The big guy can’t exactly pass on his skills, but it certainly seems the father-to-daughter connection is on full display. 

A new video is out – posted on Twitter by one of Shaq’s sons – shows 13 year old Me’arah O’Neal making an “almost” big time dunk with a ten foot high rim in what appears to be Shaq’s home gym. Check out the Twitter post below, including the big Shaq-Dunk logo on the wall. Looks to us like Shaq’s house (and playhouse) in the Orlando area… or maybe Atlanta. 

The video was first tweeted by Shareef O’Neal, Me’arah’s older brother. The original caption for the short video had this rather curious text: “So my 13 year old sister is a cheat code.” Here at the ShaqFu Radio blog, we’re still scratching our heads over that one. Sure, we know what a cheat code is in video games… not so much when it comes to hoops chops.

“Kobe and I have pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time and I am proud that no other team has accomplished the three-peat the Lakers have done since Shaq-and-the-Kobe Lakers did it,” O’Neal said to cheers from the Staples Center crowd. “And yes, sometimes, like immature kids, we argued. We fought, bantered or insulted each other with off-handed remarks. Our feud. But make no mistake, folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras were turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other.”

O’Neal also told a story about how, after being told there is no “I” in the word “team,” Bryant responded with the fact that there is the word “me.” But an emotional O’Neal did get earnest and vowed to help Bryant’s children learn their father’s basketball moves — just not O’Neal’s free throw motion.

“Mamba, you were taken away from us too soon,” O’Neal said. “Your next chapter of life was just beginning. But now it is time for us to continue your legacy. You said yourself that everything negative — pressure, challenges — is all an opportunity for me to rise. So we now take that sage advice to now rise from anguish and begin with the healing. Just know that we have got your back, little brother. I’ll look after things down here. I’ll be sure to teach Natalia, Bianca, and baby Capri all your moves. And I promise I will not teach them my free throw techniques.”