Shaquille O’Neal isn’t taking the death of his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant well. But he vowed to make a major change to his life in a recent episode of “The Big Podcast With Shaq.”
What’s going on: O’Neal’s legendary Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant died Sunday in a tragic helicopter crash, sending shockwaves across the world.
- O’Neal responded to the incident on his podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq,” which was recorded Monday. He said he would give up beefing with others.
- O’Neal: “Look, I’m all about being hard and all that, but after yesterday, I’m gonna to have to delete my beef and my confrontation clause. I don’t want to do that anymore because you know, you never know.”
- O’Neal: “So yesterday I just called all the people I had discrepancies with and just said, ‘Look man, I love you.’ And we didn’t talk much after the phone, but I just — I just wish we did,” he added, not naming who he spoke with. “You know, we’re sort of like similar guys, hey, family first, business, and I’ll see you when I see you. I have a lot of best friends, but I don’t do the mushy talking on the phone thing.”
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Context: Per HuffPost, O’Neal and Bryant had a tenuous relationship. The two NBA stars had a feud while playing together for the Lakers. They eventually put it to bed though on O’Neal’s podcast back in 2015.
- The two worked together during an NBA All-Star Game, winning co-MVP.
- Shaq and Kobe had something of an internet battle in August 2019, too, though, when the two talked about the past and how many rings they could have won if they never split up, as I wrote about at the time for the Deseret News.