Shaquille O'Neal's daughter Taahirah O'Neal explains why dating athletes is a no-go for her: “I’d be damn if you miss my birthday"
Shaquille O'Neal's daughter, Taahirah O'Neal, is a 27-year-old who graduated from Oglethorpe University back in 2019. While many may be familiar with O'Neal's two sons, Shareef and Shaqir, Taahirah is the eldest child of the Hall of Famer. While she may not be pursuing a career as a professional athlete like her brothers, she recently came into the public eye.
This week, she appeared on the "Do I Know You? w/ Jordierae" podcast for an episode called 'Taahirah O'Neal: More than just Shaquille O'Neal's daughter.' Throughout the episode, she opened up on her personal life, family life, and growing up as the daughter of one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
At one point towards the end of the episode, which spans over an hour, Taahirah O'Neal spoke about her personal life. As she explained, despite her father's success, she has little interest in dating a professional athlete.
After growing up with a father who was a professional athlete, it sounds as though Taahirah has all the info she needs regarding the busy schedule of athletes.
"No offense to athletes but I was raised by raised with athletes it's a no go for me it's a no for me ... I have like the utmost respect for athletes ... where I am in my life especially growing up the way that I did I don't want that for myself ... I need your time your I really don't want to go toe-to-toe with someone's schedule.
"And so I would be damn if you miss my birthday for a basketball tournament."
Taahirah O'Neal opens up on life growing up as Shaquille O'Neal's daughter
As she briefly explained in the quote above, Taahirah O'Neal knows how busy athletes can get. While she has plenty of respect for the grind of professional athletes, she wants to be with someone who doesn't have their schedule decided by competitions.
As the podcast host indicated in her opening, there seems to be an emphasis in society right now on finding yourself. When growing up as the daughter of arguably the greatest center of all time, however, having your own identity identity is more difficult.
Early on in the podcast episode, Taahirah O'Neal explained what it was like growing up as Shaquille O'Neal's daughter and finding herself. As she indicated, it wasn't until the past year or two that she truly found her own identity:
"I had these two huge shadows to kind of follow behind, if I wasn't Shaquille's daughter I was on Arnetta's daughter yeah and it was a lot and I think like a lot of kids you just kind of get used to it I was very comfortable being 'oh Shaquille's daughter the one who doesn't play basketball' "
Now as an adult, it sounds as though Taahirah O'Neal has found herself in recent years.