Shareef O'Neal, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O'Neal, will miss his freshman season on the UCLA basketball team because he requires heart surgery.
The highly-recruited, 6ft10 center's unspecified heart condition was discovered by team doctors after he 'felt funny' during summer workouts with teammates, he told TMZ Sports. O'Neal was asked to wear a heart monitor and push a button whenever he felt poorly so as to alert the doctors.
After he pushed the button during one summer practice, those doctors discovered the problem which will require surgery and force him to miss the 2018-19 campaign.
O'Neal will be considered a medical red shirt this season, and will still have four years of eligibility remaining when the 2019-20 season begins. He will also be eligible for the 2019 NBA Draft, but has not given any indication he plans on declaring.
(From left to right) Myles O'Neal, Shaquille O'Neal, Shareef O'Neal and Shaqir O'Neal attend the 2018 NBA Awards Show at Barker Hangar in Santa Monica, California. Shareef was expected to play for UCLA this year, but will miss the season following heart surgery
The 6ft10 Shareef O'Neal originally committed to playing for coach Sean Miller at Arizona, but opted out of his letter of intent when the program was briefly embroiled in a recruiting scandal
'So, the other day during routine checkup, we found a medical issue dealing with my heart,' O'Neal told TMZ. 'And thank God UCLA medical staff found it early, but causing this I will not be playing this season and I will be a medical redshirt. But during this time off, I'll be off for a while, I'll be focusing on academics, my health, of course, and I'll just be observing to be the best player I can be next year.'
UCLA's statement did not go into much greater detail.
'Freshman Shareef O'Neal will be sidelined for the 2018-19 season (medical),' the school said in a statement. 'He will remain enrolled in class and on the men's basketball team during this redshirt year. The UCLA men's basketball program completely supports Shareef and his family as he gets this issue resolved.'
The 7ft1 Shaquille O'Neal was a two-time SEC Player of the Year at LSU before being selected with the first pick of the 1992 NBA Draft by the Orlando Magic
The loss is a significant one for coach Steve Alford's Bruins, which assembled the country's third-best recruiting class, according to ESPN.com.
Last year, UCLA's season was overshadowed by an incident in China, when three freshman were caught shoplifting sunglasses from an upscale retailer. All three players were suspended for the year and LiAngelo Ball, the younger brother of former Bruins and current Los Angeles Lakers point guard Lonzo, left school entirely before playing professionally in Lithuania.
LiAngelo Ball was not selected during the 2018 NBA Draft.
O'Neal had originally committed to playing for coach Sean Miller at Arizona, but opted out of his letter of intent when the program was briefly embroiled in a recruiting scandal.
O'Neal insists he will be back in a Bruins uniform.
'I know it's an injury that requires surgery, so I'll be having heart surgery and I'll be out a couple months and after that I'll be back,' he said in the video. 'A lot of people are asking if it's career-ending. The answer is absolutely not. Just a little bump in the road. ... During my rehab, I'll be attending my classes and being a normal student. But that's what's going on, and I'd like to thank UCLA, my family, my teammates and everyone who supports me in this decision.'
The loss is a significant one for coach Steve Alford (pictured with his arms outstretched) and the Bruins. Last year, UCLA's season was overshadowed by an incident in China, when three freshman were caught shoplifting sunglasses from an upscale retailer. All three were suspended for the year and LiAngelo Ball, the younger brother of former Bruins and current Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo, left school entirely before playing professionally in Lithuania
As a high school senior, Shareef O'Neal was given five out of five stars by Rivals.com and ESPN.com, and four out of five stars by 247Sports.com
He also admitted that the news is depressing, particularly because so much was expected from O'Neal as a freshman.
'I'm a little down,' he said. 'I feel like I was at my peak of basketball going into my freshman year and coming out of the state championship of high school. I felt like I was at the top of my game right now. Just trying to get better, getting stronger but then this happened. I'm just doing my best to focus on my health right now. '
The 46-year-old Shaquille O'Neal remains one of the game's most identifiable figures, even in retirement. Besides his littany of endorsement deals, Shaq is watched by millions on the NBA on TNT's pre-game and halftime shows.
The four-time NBA champion and 2000 NBA MVP was named to 15 All-Star teams, eight All-NBA First Teams, and was named NBA Rookie of the Year in 1993 after being taken out of LSU with the first pick of the 1992 NBA Draft.
1 IN 5 NBA PLAYERS HAVE HEART SCANS THAT APPEAR ABNORMAL
By Mia De Graaf Health Editor For Dailymail.com
A fifth of today's basketball stars have abnormal-seeming hearts scans, according to the most detailed assessment of the NBA's heart health to date.
Basketball players are 30 times more likely than any other athlete to suffer a sudden cardiac death and few seven-footers live to their 90s.
This research, published in December of 2017 by NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University, included data on every player in the NBA in 2014 and is an attempt to understand the problem.
They found abnormalities on an electrocardiogram were particularly common among players in the second half of their career, over the age of 27 years old.
Lakers forward LeBron James, 33, was one of the older players in the study
These findings do not necessarily mean basketball is dangerous for the heart: once the researchers cross-referenced their scans with an ultrasound, they found a lot of these abnormalities were relatively 'normal' and harmless for the players.
But they said it shows NBA stars needs their own unique type of heart assessments to monitor their health - especially as we stay stronger for longer, meaning players could enjoy much lengthier careers.
The 'older' age bracket in the NBA includes the current greats - 33-year-old six-foot-eight LeBron James, 29-year-old seven-foot Kevin Durant, and 28-year-old six-foot-five James Harden, though the study was anonymous did not identify specific players' risk factors.
'We have shown that players do develop significant changes with exercise,' David Engel, lead author of the study which was published today in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
'Their hearts become larger, the weight and mass changes, and we found that this is particularly true for the oldest players, aged 27 to 39, compared to the younger ones around 18 to 22.
Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (left) was another participant in the study, conducted by NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University
'We need to look specifically at why that's the case.'
Dr Engel said he plans to continue the study for decades, tracking today's NBA stars long into retirement.
In particular, he wants to come closer to understanding why tall African Americans have such perilous heart risks.
'You don't see that many seven-foot 80-year-olds walking around and we don't know the reason for that,' Dr Engel said, paraphrasing Larry Bird, a former NBA player who famously joked that his wife hated him recounting that fact.
'There are significant differences in African American players compared to Caucasian players, so that is something else we are looking into.'
Jeff Green is one of several NBA players who have been sidelined by heart issues
The study comes just over 10 years after the NBA first implemented mandatory ECG screening for players - the most comprehensive cardiac screening and monitoring program of any sport, given the high heart risk.
A number of players have suffered heart woes, including Channing Frye and Jeff Green, and retired Etan Thomas formerly of the Washington Wizards. In college basketball, Hank Gathers famously died on court of a heart arrhythmia.
The study assessed around 500 players, 400 of whom were African American, in the pre-season of 2014.
Compared to other athletes, they found 81 NBA athletes (15.6 percent) had abnormal scans using the newly-devised assessment criteria, released earlier this year. Had they used the previous criteria, they would have found false-positive abnormalities in another 50 players.
Since the study was observational, Dr Engel has not yet ascertained what it is about NBA exercise regimes that exacerbate players' existing health risks. He emphasized that the NBA is working closely with Columbia to investigate the issue further.
The priority, he said, is to fine-tune our criteria, so doctors know what is normal for players like LeBron and Kevin Durant.
https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/29/shaqs-18-year-old-son-shareef-oneal-to-miss-freshman-season-at-ucla-because-of-heart-surgery/
Main photo article Shareef O’Neal, the son of NBA Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, will miss his freshman season on the UCLA basketball team because he requires heart surgery.
The highly-recruited, 6ft10 center’s unspecified heart condition was discovered by team doctors after he ‘felt...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1/2018/09/28/15/4611734-6219163-image-a-20_1538146701412.jpg
Комментариев нет:
Отправить комментарий