College Basketball
Shareef O’Neal Out for the Season
Son of basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal, Shareef, is going to miss the 2018-’19 college basketball season with a heart condition. After he felt ‘funny’ following workouts this offseason, the California-Los Angeles (UCLA) doctors gave O’Neal a heart monitor to wear. On the monitor is a button for Shareef to push whenever he felt uncomfortable. TMZ reports O’Neal pushed the button after a summer practice, revealing a heart ailment.
As a result, O’Neal chose to undergo surgery in the near future. In the meantime, Shareef plans to continue life as a normal UCLA student-athlete. O’Neal will attend classes as a normal student while using a medical redshirt status (officially known as a ‘medical hardship waiver’) for the 2018-’19 season. A medical hardship waiver is applied for by the school, as the NCAA can grant or deny the request.
Medical Hardship Waiver
Here are the requirements for an athlete to land a medical hardship waiver claim:
- It must be a season-ending injury
- The injury must occur during the senior year of high school or during one of the four college years.
- The injury must occur prior to the second half of the regular season.
- The student-athlete must not have competed in 30% or more of the team’s overall contests.
Shareef originally saw Arizona as his future collegiate team, switching to UCLA after the Sean Miller-Deandre Ayton story surfaced. He was a four-star recruit at both Windward and Crossroads High located in California.
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Photo Credit: David Pradel via Twitter
