Shareef O’Neal blasted a Twitter troll on Tuesday for blaming the G League Ignite forward for 18-year-old Bronny James‘ cardiac arrest.
The exchange between Shareef and the shameful troll occurred hours after reports surfaced regarding Bronny’s medical scare. On Monday, the eldest son of LeBron James was rushed to the hospital after suffering a cardiac arrest while practicing at USC. Bronny is currently in stable condition and out of the ICU.
Shareef, 23, is familiar with his friend Bronny’s medical issue, as O’Neal sat out his freshman season at UCLA in 2018 after having open-heart surgery to fix a coronary artery.
That wasn’t enough to prevent one hateful individual from blaming Shaq’s son for Bronny’s medical emergency. “Bronny started hanging with Shareef and now look,” the tweet read. “@SSJreef stay yo ass away from him he’s destined for greatness not overseas.”
Shareef responded by taking the high road, saying he’d pray for the individual’s well-being.
“That is very disrespectful of you to say,” Shareef wrote in a since-deleted tweet. “I’ve been around Bronny for a very long time before this happened … I’ll pray for you. You need help … sick that you would even say something like that.”
Shareef O’Neal’s comments arrive the same day he discussed his past heart issues in an appearance on the Now for Later with Eric Mika podcast.
“It’s crazy ’cause I can go so long without thinking about it, and then if one little thing reminds me of it, it just brings it all back,” O’Neal said, explaining that Buffalo Bills cornerback Damar Hamlin’s cardiac arrest last year brought back memories for him. “That’s something I’m still trying to work on.”
