Shaquille O’Neal Has 4 Words of Advice for Angel Reese

Shaquille O’Neal has been close with Chicago Sky star Angel Reese dating back to her days at LSU.

Both Reese and O’Neal are LSU legends, and the Pro Basketball Hall of Famer helped use his preestablished connection to help sign Reese to an endorsement deal with Reebok before the start of her WNBA career.

Since then, he has continued to serve as a mentor to the 2024 All-Star, who has notched some impressive accomplishments on the court but also dealt with criticism away from it, particularly on social media.

During a sit down this week with Sports Illustrated’s Claudette Montana, O’Neal was asked about any misconceptions people may have about Reese, who the four-time NBA champion says he always shares four words of wisdom with.

“[She’s] really a nice, beautiful young lady. But when you’re in this thing of ours, you have a play a certain way and you have to be a certain way,” Shaq said. “A lot of times, they, if they don’t understand who you are, they misconceive. But I tell her all the time, ‘Don’t worry about that.'”

“She’ as good or even better than some of the people that y’all are kissing up to. But y’all don’t know it. But she knows it,” Shaq continued. “And in order to be great, you have to know you’re great.”

Reese has been vocal about the stresses of dealing with online trolling and fan criticism, but that hasn’t stopped her from speaking her mind on a variety of topics.

“y’all be feeling too entitled thinking y’all opinions matter about somebody else life instead of minding your own business. i promise you win at life when you just live your OWN life and mind your OWN business. I PROMISE. 💞,” Reese wrote on social media in April.

Shaq’s continued advice for the young star is to ignore any outside commenters.

“Because they don’t really have a voice, they just think they do,” Shaq told SI.

Shaquille O’Neal Has 4 Words of Advice for Angel Reese first appeared on Men’s Journal on Jun 3, 2025