“Still haunts me” – Shaquille O’Neal gets candid about BIGGEST REGRET about Kobe Bryant beef
Shaquille O'Neal regrets not squashing his feud with Kobe Bryant during their playing days.
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Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant (Credits: USA TODAY Sports)
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant are one of the greatest duos ever seen in the league’s history. They together led the Los Angeles Lakers to 3 championships and became the last team to three-peat. They could have surely won a lot more championships if they had squashed their beef and dominated the league together. Both O’Neal and Bryant had an alpha mentality and wanted to be head of the team. But that’s not how things work and unfortunately, the duo had to part ways.
Now, after Kobe Bryant’s tragic death in a helicopter crash, Shaquille O’Neal really regrets not getting things right with ‘Bean’ in time. Shaq in his appearance on “The Pivot Podcast,” revealed one of his biggest regrets about feuding with Bryant. He started off his take by recalling the unfortunate day he lost his best teammate.
Shaquille O’Neal quoted: “One day I’m sitting in the house and my son comes up crying… He said, ‘Yo, man. Kobe just died in a helicopter crash.’ I was like, ‘Y’all bullsh*tting. It’s a hoax, stop it.’ Shaunie called me crying. I said, ‘Hold on, let me verify.’ And I called my guy at the Sheriff’s office and he said it was true. I started crying and that still haunts me.”
Further, talking about his feud and relationship with Kobe Bryant he added: “All the sh*t we went through we could have shook hands and put that aside. Cauz people think it was worser than it was. It’s just 2 brothers going at it. 2 guys you know with difference of opinion. I always tell people after my first championship when I go like this it’s a million mother****ers in the arena. Who jumps in my arms first? Kobe… The thing that kept us going was the respect… You look at our relationship it was perfect but it was not perfect. Able to win 3.”
Shaquille O’Neal honestly said it all out and they really were a great pair. With all those differences, they were still balling and playing great basketball together. It’s nice that both Kobe Bryant and Big Diesel sorted their things out in 2018 February or else it would have been a really bad ending for one of the greatest duo in the history of the game.
Shaquille O’Neal wasn’t able to sleep after Kobe Bryant’s death
Even though Shaquille O’Neal is the greatest force of domination ever seen in the league’s history. He is also a human being who has emotions and feelings for the people he loved. Nobody, expected the passing of Kobe Bryant so it was really a shocker for everyone. O’Neal though was thrown away with the tragic news as he was already dealing with the trauma of his sister’s death.
In an episode of the HBO docuseries, Shaq later revealed how he’s not able to sleep because of all the regrets he has after losing his loved ones. He said: “I don’t go to bed till 5 AM… Ever since Kobe [Bryant] and my sister died I can’t sleep.”
He was really facing a hard time during that phase and even today he regrets some of his decisions, especially the ones which made him part ways with Kobe Bean Bryant.
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Ritik Malik
(1743 Articles Published)