Metta World Peace Cheers Against His Kids In Favor Of Shaq's Son

There's no beef between Shaq and Metta World Peace over their basketball star kids ... matter of fact, Metta says he sometimes pulls for Shareef when he plays against his son.

TMZ Sports spoke to Metta about Ron Artest III's H.S. squad going up against Shareef O'Neal's this week ... and he says he's so close to Shareef, he's conflicted about who he wants to win.

FYI -- Shareef is one of the top-ranked juniors in the country ... and Ron III -- who just started ballin' 2 years ago -- is an up-and-coming prospect.

MWP says he's cool with the young ballers being friends OFF the court as long as they're still enemies ON the court.

As for Metta, if being a basketball dad and an NBA player weren't enough to keep him busy ... he told us he just dropped a new hip-hop track.