Since his birth, Sharif has been in the public eye and surrounded by a large number of well-known players. As a child of one of the greatest stars in NBA history, he can feel the heavy expectations of the outside world climbing on his shoulders. "Those negative energies have been there since I was born." "When people know that Shaquille O'Neal has a son, they have all sorts of ideas about whether he's going to play basketball or if he's going to be as good as his father," he said. ”
In the fall of 2017, Sharif welcomed his senior season at Santa Monica Cross Street School. At the start of the season, he topped California's espn's top 100 high school list, but was only ranked 32nd in the United States and only 9th in the same class. In the summer, he competed and excelled as part of the "cal supreme elite" team, and scouts were attracted by his height, long arms, skill and athleticism. His dunks are gripping and he has a fairly good shooting feel among players of equal stature, and if he is polished, he is bound to make him a potential offensive threat on both the inside and outside lines.
When Sharif lost the 2018 All-American McDonald's High School Star Squad, he was watching TV and swiping a Tweet reminder, hoping his name would jump out somewhere on the screen. And when none of this ended up happening, his heart was on fire. A day later, LeBron James posted a poster of Sharif on Ig with the caption: "Listen kid: Even if we all know you should be selected for the McDonald's Star Game, you still have to use this as a motivation to motivate yourself." Not to prove to those who don't vote for you, not to prove to those who are actually selected, but most importantly to prove to yourself that you deserve this position! ”
Sharif tried his best to get rid of it all. By March, he led Cross Street High School to its first state championship since 1997 — when Byron Davis (who later went to the UCLA Brown Bears) led the team to the D4 division. Soon after, Sharif received an invitation to participate in the Jordan Classic, which was also a successful end to his high school career.
At that time, everything seemed to him to be a benign development. His body was gradually matured — he became stronger, faster and athletic , and he felt ready to play out in his freshman season. When he arrived a few months later, the school routinely asked Sharif to fill out a handwritten medical examination form. As he was filling out various questions about his medical experience, one question caught his attention— asking him if he had any heart disease.
Sharif called his mother, Shaunie, who immediately shared his history of heart disease with his trainer. As early as 2004-2008, during his father's time for the Miami Heat, a doctor discovered that there was a "small problem" in Sharif's heart, that is, "supraventricular tachycardia." He has visited a cardiologist every year since then, but has not been unusual since he was a child. After a few days, the trainer decided to do some tests, including placing a heart monitor inside him and performing tests for 5 days. But Sharif was not happy because he felt that there was nothing wrong with his heart, and the heart monitor was superfluous.
On September 24, 2018, a team of 15 UCLAs called Sharif and his mother into an office and provided them with test results. Father Shaq was also involved through facetime. The doctor said that Sharif's heart was indeed abnormal, and the diagnosis was coronary artery malformation. The test results showed that whenever Sharif's heart was abnormal, as long as it beat a certain number of times a minute, it was bound to be squeezed, so the coronary arteries could not provide the heart with the blood flow, oxygen and nutrients it needed. As a result, the problem can lead to a heart attack at any given moment and can lead to death. He needs to undergo open-heart surgery and apply for an injury redshirt in his freshman year.
Sharif was immersed in his emotions, tears streaming down his face.
"In a way, I felt cheated. I thought all the time that I wasn't sick. "It's been 14 years since I found out the problem, and I always play every day with the belief that 'I'm okay', but I don't know that I may die on the same day." ”
Sharif also learned about the heart surgery he needed—the complexity and likelihood of death that sent him into a "panic." He admitted that he had "found something he probably shouldn't have experienced." But during a preoperative appointment, dr. Frank L. Hanley, his chief surgeon, Professor of Thoracic Surgery at Stanford University and director of the Children's Heart Center, assured him. "LeBron James is the me in basketball!" The words made Sharif's sense of fear lessen—at least at that moment. "When he said that to me, I thought: This man must be very powerful. I should have asked him to do this surgery. Sharif said.
The date of the operation is set for December 13, 2018, at the Children's Hospital at Stanford University.
A few hours later, he woke up in the ICU ward, where his father and mother were standing. Sharif tried to breathe, "I was going to breathe through a big tube, and I had something like a chest tube in my abdomen. "I just try to feel my breath, and then I start crying when I get up, because I have mixed feelings in my heart." I saw my mother and my family, and they were like they were saying to me: 'It's over, it's all over.' ’”
Although the surgery left him without the strength to stand up, he still eagerly asked to get out of bed and move around the day after the operation. Hour by hour, his condition kept improving—faster than many doctors had expected. "After all this, he really became a warrior." His mother said.
He began to think about how he could step out of his past and create a new life. He had a huge scar in the middle of his chest, and the stitches of the suture were intertwined like dirty braids (most open-heart surgeries leave a long incision through the sternum). Like his father, Sharif loves to give himself various nicknames, including "ssjreef", which has become the name of his Twitter account. After some thought, he came up with a new nickname for himself: "zipper boy."
"I found this scar to look like a zipper, and after all, my father's nickname is 'Superman.'" Sharif explains, "I want to turn bad things into good things, I want to be my own superhero. ”
He received a lot of encouragement and blessings from a group of NBA superstars. After news of Sharif's surgery spread, LeBron wrote a comment with words of encouragement under his ig; Kobe Bryant spoke to him on the phone every week before the operation; and Tracy McGrady, who had trained with him.
He also began to re-evaluate his life and see his health and happiness as his highest priority. "Before I make sure everyone else is okay, I want to make sure I'm okay. After going through all this, I stopped all my activities and had to pay attention to the things that really mattered, like school and family. ”
In March 2019, he took a stress test. The test requires him to run for long periods of time, while doctors evaluate the electronic signals triggered by his heart rate. Sharif's test results were exactly double his expected heart rate, and he was given permission to start exercising again.
He announced the permission through a video published on social media. The video shows him running in slow motion on a treadmill, and the caption flashing on the screen is "I always get back on my feet."
On June 15, he made his Drew league debut. He wanted to keep a low profile and chose not to inform the public, but it didn't work — his team's tuff crowd match was scheduled at 1:00 p.m. local time, while Lamello Ball's match was expected to start at 3:45, just after him. As a result, when the time came, the crowds outside the stadium were all gathered in circles. When Sharif put on his No. 7 shirt, there was some anxiety in his heart. He told himself to either collapse under pressure or let it go and do his best to complete the eruption.
Sharif is getting ready for his first season at UCLA. He regained weight and worked hard every day to improve. His bounces were as powerful as ever, and he knew how to use his body better than before, and his reactions were faster. "He's talking to me more on the phone," Shaunie said, "and he's just getting more talkative." "Sharif said this summer and the summer he decided to announce his candidacy will be the most crucial test for him." This summer is probably a little more important, because I can feel that I have been a little forgotten by the basketball world. He said.
Now that Sharif has entered a new chapter in his life, he has had to make a new nickname for himself — and he has received some help.
"My father told me I might need to inherit his 'Superman' name." He said, "I have also considered this matter, although I myself do not want it, but he takes it very seriously." I asked him why, and his response was: 'I haven't had success with heart surgery or what you went through when I was 19.' I don't think I can get to where you are, you're strong, you're at the highest point in the world, and no one can stop you. After having a new heart, you will be the most powerful person in the world, and you should inherit this title. ’”
After hesitating, Sharif decided to take the title, with a slight change: "I don't want to call myself 'New Superman,' but it's okay to call it 'Superman 2.0.'." He also added a tattoo of the "Superman" shield logo to his left arm. "That's my new nickname, after all, the old version of Superman is the father."