Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal infamously clashed when they were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers. Things eventually got so bad that O’Neal was traded in an effort to convince Bryant to return to the team in free agency. But the two eventually reconciled with some distance. They spoke a number of times in a public forum, including O’Neal’s podcast in 2015 and a TNT segment in 2018. O’Neal attended Bryant’s final game in 2016, and Bryant attended the unveiling of O’Neal’s statue in front of the Staples Center a year later. On several occasions, O’Neal referred to Bryant as the greatest Laker of all time.
Bryant died on Sunday in a helicopter accident in Calabasas, and his loss has profoundly impacted the entire basketball world. Perhaps nobody within it was linked as closely to Bryant as O’Neal was, and he spoke at length about the sense of loss he has experienced since Bryant’s death on a special TNT pre-game show Tuesday.
O’Neal, who lost his sister recently as well, explained that he initially didn’t believe the news when he saw it.
“The other day I’m downstairs working out with my son Shaqir and my nephew Columbus. Then my other nephew comes in, crying, and he shows me his phone. And I snapped at him, I said ‘man get that out of my face. Get that away from me.’ We live in a world where anything can be photoshopped, anything can be hoaxed. I didn’t want to believe it.”
In reflecting on his relationship with Bryant, O’Neal acknowledged that while things certainly got contentious, he never lost respect for his former teammate.
“Our names will be attached together for what we did. People always ask about our relationship, and I tell them it’s just like me and Charles. You’ve got two strong-minded people who are gonna get it done their way. We’re gonna say certain things, the respect will never be lost, but when it comes to being inside the lines and win, that’s what me and him did.”
Just as devastating for O’Neal was hearing of the loss of Bryant’s daughter, Gianna, especially given the relationship that his own children shared with Bryant.
“Every time I saw his lovely wife and his kids, same thing I do with Kenny’s kids and D-Wade’s kids, ‘hi, my name is uncle Shaq.’ I don’t know if they know me as a basketball player, it doesn’t matter, ‘hi I’m uncle Shaq,’ I try to make them laugh. He would do the same thing. Shareef called me, devastated, and said ‘Kobe just texted me’ to check to see how he was doing. He used to do that from time to time.”
O’Neal was understandably an emotional wreck in talking about Bryant, and at one point struggled for words so much that Ernie Johnson nearly steered the conversation to the other panelists. But he regained his composure and tried to take a lesson from the experience. He described the realization of needing to speak to the people he cares about more, a sentiment that has been shared by just about everyone grieving Bryant in recent days. While few knew him as well as O’Neal did, his loss can hopefully at least spur others into appreciating their lives and the people around them a little bit more.
