More dialogue has surfaced between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant from the latest episode of “The Big Podcast with Shaq”. O’Neal invited his former teammate onto his podcast for an in-depth discussion about their past and heightened conflict while on the Lakers.
The first stream of dialogue featured Kobe and Shaq both expressing regret about their feud, specifically about how they dealt with the media at the time.
Broderick Turner of the LA Times has more quotes from Shaq and Kobe as they further cleared the air on their relationship:
“I just want people to know that I don’t hate you, I know you don’t hate me. I call it today a ‘work beef,’ is what we had,” said O’Neal, who retired after the 2010-11 season. “I was young, you was young. But then as I look at it, we won three [championships] out of four so I don’t really think a lot was done wrong. So I just wanted to clear the air and let everybody know that, no, I don’t hate you. We had a lot of disagreements, we had a lot of arguments. But I think it fueled us both.”
“In ’99, I think Shaq realized that this kid is really competitive and he’s a little crazy,” said Bryant, who is heading into what could be his final NBA season. “And I realized that I probably had a couple of screws loose because I nearly got into a fistfight and I actually was willing to get into a fight with this man. I went home and I was like, ‘Dude, I’ve either got to be the dumbest or the most courageous kid on the face of the Earth.'”
“That just showed me, ‘You know what, this kid ain’t going to back down to nobody,'” O’Neal said. “Kobe seen me punk everybody in the league. So when this kid would stand up every day [to me], I’m like, ‘This kid ain’t going to back down.’ I knew then, if I’m down by one and I kick it out to someone, he’s going to shoot it and he’s going to make it.”
Both Bryant and O’Neal laughed.
“He was either going to beat the . . . out of me or I was going to get it done,” Bryant said. “I was comfortable with either one.”
“Again, it was two alpha males and the business aspect kicked in,” O’Neal said. “I was getting older. Management was like, ‘Hey, you’re getting older, we know you want this, but we want to give you that.’ And in my mind, ‘I’m not getting older. I don’t want that. I don’t want that.’ And they just wanted to move in a new direction.”
Bryant suggested imagining Wilt Chamberlain in his prime playing with up-and-coming Michael Jordan, and Jordan decides he wants to take the controls.
“How long is that going to last before Michael says, ‘You know what, it’s time for me to show what I can do,'” Bryant said, adding of O’Neal, “That’s why he and I are one of a kind when it comes to tandems, because you literally had two alpha males playing together on one team and that normally does not happen.”
Shaq’s full podcast with Kobe will be available on Monday.
