Shaquille O'Neal hopes his kids don't play professional basketball

Shaquille O’Neal is reflecting on the sacrifices he made to reach the pinnacle of professional basketball.

Shaquille O’Neal is reflecting on the sacrifices he made to reach the pinnacle of professional basketball.

During a Friday appearance on "TODAY," O’Neal, widely regarded as one of the greatest NBA players in history, shared his mantra for his seven children: “We don’t need another basketball player. At all.”

“So if you want to play basketball, cool, but please go to law school. Please go to medical school. Please be an engineer. Please be an AI inventor. Just do something else,” O’Neal, 53, said. “So I give them freedom to be who they are. I never press them.”

The athlete also touched on his parenting philosophy, making it clear that he’s not raising entitled kids, that they are expected to work hard.

“In order to touch daddy’s cheese, you got to show me two or three degrees,” he joked, to emphasize the value he places on education.