Shaquille O'Neal's son, Shareef, will no longer be playing basketball for University of Arizona's Wildcats. On Saturday afternoon (Feb 24), the 18-year-old took to Twitter to announce that he's reopening his recruitment due to the controversy surrounding the school's coach.
"At this time I'm am opening up my recruitment due to the current events with the UofA Bball team," his tweet read. "I would like to thank all the coaches for recruiting me. At the time my family and I think it's in my best interest to look at other options to assure my play in the NCAA next year." O'Neal followed up by thanking his coaches and "all the Arizona staff and fans for all the support they've shown my family and I."
The news comes after the FBI revealed that they wiretapped a conversation between Arizona Wildcats men's basketball coach Sean Miller and Christian Dawkins, a "runner" for sports agent Andy Miller, about offering a $100,000 bribe to recruit high school freshman, Deandre Ayton, to the team in the future. Ten people have been arrested so far, including Dawkins and Arizona assistant coach Emanuel Richardson, according to AOL.
Last April, O'Neal announced his commitment to the University of Arizona, but ESPN reports that he didn't sign a letter of intent, meaning that he won't need Arizona's permission to leave.
Before aligning himself with Arizona, he was rumored to be going to the University of Kentucky, whose mascot is also the Wildcats, or to follow his basketball legend dad's footsteps by becoming a tiger at Louisiana State University. However, it's uncertain where the young power forward will head next.
