American basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal revealed that his name came due to his conversion to Islam, and his mother chose it after finding its meaning “little warrior”.
O’Neill arrived in Abu Dhabi on the sidelines of the Milwaukee-Atlanta match for the first time in the Middle East, which took place last weekend.
O’Neill told Al-Arabiya: “I was called Shakeel for an Islamic reason. My mother is from a religious family and when she got pregnant with me, I went through a book of Islamic names and found the name Shakeel, which means little warrior., and she chose him because she decided to be the little warrior, which she has done all her life.
He added: I always wanted to win, my grandmother told me that my name would be known around the world, so I played basketball to become famous and make my family happy.
