Shaq And Candace Parker Shared A Special Moment After Showing Highlights Of His Daughter, Me’Arah

On Tuesday night, Shaquille O’Neal was in his usual spot on the TNT desk alongside Candace Parker, Jamal Crawford, and Adam Lefkoe as they had their weekly doubleheader, starting with the Thunder and Sixers playing in Joel Embiid’s return.

However, the game that was on Shaq’s mind had been played earlier in the afternoon in Houston, where his daughter, Me’Arah, was part of the West roster for the 2024 McDonald’s All-American Games. During halftime of the Thunder-Sixers game, the TNT crew had Parker do a highlight read of Me’Arah’s performance in Houston and shared a wholesome moment with the Big Fella (while also poking fun at the fact Me’Arah is already a better free throw shooter than Shaq). Shaq informed Candace that he used to have Me’Arah watch Parker’s highlights to model her game off of and thanked Candace for paving the way for his daughter to have a basketball career to aspire to.

That got Parker a bit wistful, and she returned the favor by talking about how proud she could tell Shaq was watching the game in the back, while Lefkoe and Crawford tried their best to coax some tears out of a defiant (but clearly emotional) O’Neal, who insisted they needed to go to break.

It’s a great moment and it is always cool seeing stars beaming with pride about their kids accomplishments. You could tell it meant a lot to Shaq that Candace was the one reading his daughter’s highlights and it was also awesome to see him give Parker her flowers on air, turning the tables a bit on the attempt to get the big man to let the tears flow on air.