Jermaine O'Neal's Son Reveals His Dad Almost Chose To Play For South Carolina

South Carolina's basketball program has missed out on multiple in-state high school stars over time, and Jermaine O'Neal might truly be the one that got away.

South Carolina's Basketball program is one that some in college basketball might view as a sleeping giant for multiple reasons; the conference they reside in, the increased fan support from the past several years due in large part to the success of Dawn Staley and the women's basketball program, and the abundance of in-state high school talent. The the ability acquire said high school talent, however, has eluded the Gamecocks dating back decades, and aren't helped when programs like Duke, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee quite literally surround the state geographically-speaking.

One of the best high school basketball players to ever dawn a hardwood floor in the Palmetto State was Jermaine O'Neal, who, when leaving Eau Claire in 1996, took advantage of the draft eligibility rules the NBA had at the time, which allowed players like O'Neal to leap straight to the NBA. Thus South Carolina will never know what could've been if Jermaine had teamed up with program legend BJ McKie. However, in a recent interview with On3 National Recruiting Analyst Jamie Shaw, Jermaine's son, Jermaine O'Neal Jr., told the analyst that his father was close to staying in his hometown of Columbia.

"That is where my dad is from, and he was about to go there before he went to the league."

These words likely are piercing the hearts of older Gamecock basketball fans, who yearn to see state prodigies stay closer to home in this new era of South Carolina basketball. Jermaine's son, however, revealed that South Carolina is a school that he'll be paying close attention to throughout the process, so maybe an O'Neal basketball star will wind up playing for the Gamecocks after all.

"Their message to me was they want me to be a strong piece in what their building. They’re definitely a school I’m going to look at closely."

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