The member of the Hall of Fame, Shaquille O’Neal, agreed to become the general manager of the male basketball program in the state of Sacramento with the new coach Mike Bibby.
A person familiar with the situation said on Monday that O’Neal will take the voluntary work for the program that his son, Shaqir, recently joined as a player. The person spoke about anonymity because the school had made an ad.
ESPN first reported the news.
Bibby, the former NBA star for the Sacramento Kings, was hired as coach of the Hornets last month when the school tries to raise its profile in colleague athletics.
One of the first additions that Bibby made was to sign Shaqir O’Neal as a transfer from Florida A&M. Now Bibby has O’Neal’s father involved in the program.
O’Neal is the last high profile athlete to assume a general manager role in a university program. Stephen Curry was recently announced as Davidson’s general assistant manager and brings Young has the same role in Oklahoma.
Or is currently an analyst in the “Inside The NBA” program of TNT. He also served as a minority owner of the Sacramento Kings of 2013-22.
Sacramento State was 7-25 this season under the interim coach Michael Czepil, who was promoted last spring after David Patrick left to take a job as a coach associated in LSU.
The Hornets had gone 28-42 in two seasons under Patrick and the program has never made an NCAA tournament since it moved to division I in 1991-92. Hornets have had a winning record only twice since then, with 16-14 in 2019-20 and 21-12 in 2014-15.
Associated Press reports.
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