Shaquille O'Neal hopes to carry on the legacy of late boxing great Muhammad Ali, the retired four-time NBA champion said, as he uses his extraordinary fame to advance his philanthropic work.

O'Neal will be honoured on Saturday at the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville for his work supporting underserved youth, a cause that reflects the ideals that "The Greatest" championed, Ali's widow Lonnie Ali said.

"We don't give this out lightly," Ali told Reuters in a joint interview with O'Neal.

"We give it to people who emulate Muhammad's example, who bring that Ali spirit and carry that torch forward to the next generation."

She said she sees a lot of her husband, a global icon known as much for his political activism as his boxing brilliance, in Hall of Famer O'Neal.

"He has a compassionate and kind heart like Muhammad had," she said.

O'Neal, 52, credits the Boys & Girls Club of America as being a safe haven for him when he was growing up in a rough part of Newark, New Jersey.

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