MY ACCOUNT
The Los Angeles Lakers did not have a first-round pick in the 2022 NBA Draft, but they will have a pair of high-profile rookies on their Summer League roster.
Ex-LSU forward Shareef O’Neal and former Vanderbilt guard Scotty Pippen Jr have agreed to free-agent contracts with the team as they try to follow their famous fathers into the NBA.
O’Neal is the son of Hall of Famer Shaquille O’Neal, who played eight seasons with the Lakers from 1996 to 2004 and helped the franchise to three consecutive NBA championships from 2000 to 2002.
Pippen’s father, Scottie, was a seven-time All-Star and a major part of the Chicago Bulls dynasty in the 1990s that won six NBA titles in an eight-year span from 1991 to 1998.
According to The Athletic, O’Neal has received an invitation to play on the Lakers’ Summer League team in Las Vegas, while Pippen Jr has agreed to a two-way contract – as has Syracuse’s Cole Swider.
Both players confirmed the signings on their Twitter accounts.
“THANK YOU FOR THIS OPPORTUNITY @Lakers!,” O’Neal wrote while posting a short video of him as a child in a Lakers jersey.
“Dreams come true. Let’s get to work #lakeshow,” Pippen Jr tweeted.
The six-foot-10 O’Neal began his collegiate career at UCLA before transferring to LSU, where his father starred prior to being taken by the Orlando Magic with the number one overall pick of the 1992 draft. Foot injuries limited the younger O’Neal to only 37 games over three college seasons.
Pippen Jr, a six-foot-three guard who attended high school in the Los Angeles area, went undrafted despite a standout three-year career at Vanderbilt in which he scored 1,577 points in three seasons.
The 21-year-old averaged over 20 points per game in each of his final two seasons and was a two-time first team All-Southeastern Conference selection.
