"Her name is Anesthesia": Shaquille O'Neal made up a hilarious story to calm down Shareef O'Neal before heart surgery

Shaquille O'Neal had a hilarious yet sweet way of consoling his son Shareef O'Neal when the latter was diagnosed with a severe heart condition in 2018 and had to undergo surgery. The nervous then 18-year-old needed some reassurance, and in quintessential Shaq fashion, the former Los Angeles Lakers big man had a fun story to make his son feel better going into the surgery.

During his appearance on 'Jimmy Kimmel Live', O'Neal was asked about how his son was doing, and the four-time champion had good news and a heartwarming story to share.

"My son is excellent. At the time, it was very traumatic and on the way to surgery, he was very nervous," O'Neal said. "So I had to make up something. Hey, you're about to go into surgery... a beautiful nurse is going to come in and her name is Anesthesia and you won't remember anything."

[Starts 1:24 onwards]

As it turned out, the youngster didn't remember a thing, just like his father said. This saw laughter from the audience, which later quickly turned into cheers when O'Neal confirmed that the phenom would later play for UCLA that season.

In the end, it was good news for Shareef O'Neal as he made a healthy recovery and resumed his basketball activities. While with UCLA, he wore a monitoring device during practice post-surgery but did not wear it during games, showing that he made a complete recovery.

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Shaquille O'Neal is arguably one of the most funniest stars in the NBA

Whether it's pulling practical jokes on his TNT's Inside the NBA co-hosts or having a dance-off with LeBron James during the 2007 NBA All-Star Weekend, Shaquille O'Neal has made no secret of the fact that he loves having fun.

His humor has been widely appreciated, and for those unaware, it's also the approach that he took for his successful business empire after calling time on his decorated career.

Speaking on 'The Be Better Off Show', O'Neal explained how he used comedy as a way to sell.

“I kept seeing this dumb dog, Spuds MacKenzie. His commercials were funny…So I said, ‘Okay, if I ever got the opportunity to show myself to the world, there has to be a lot of humor in my commercials.'"

That move surely worked, as Shaquille O'Neal now boasts an estimated net worth of $400 million in 2023. There's no doubt that his sense of humor has played a key role in shaping how he is as a person and has also brought smiles to not just his family but to his fans across the world.