Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant engaged in one of the NBA’s most infamous feuds during the course of their time together as teammates on the Lakers. Though the pair was able to patch up their relationship before Bryant’s sudden death in a helicopter crash in 2020, O’Neal admitted that he has significant regrets about letting the tension between the two linger.
“You put off [getting in touch],” O’Neal told People magazine. “I’ll never get to see Kobe again, in real life, forever. And I just should have called. He should have called. We both should have called. But he’s working, I’m working, so it’s ‘I’ll see you when I see you.’”
On the court, O’Neal and Bryant teamed up to form a tenacious duo that led Los Angeles to three consecutive championships from 2000 to ’02. With two of the best players in the league at the time, the Phil Jackson-led Lakers were poised to form one of the greatest dynasties ever seen in sports.
However, as Jackson put it, a “juvenile” feud led to the demise of the Kobe and Shaq Lakers in 2004, when the latter publicly requested a trade. O’Neal was dealt to the Heat that year and both players would go on to find success individually before their NBA careers came to an end.
The pair began to patch things up as the years went by and O’Neal admitted he thought about the two re-connecting as they grew older. However, the 2020 helicopter crash that claimed the lives of Bryant, his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others, prevented the former teammates from getting that chance.
“[I thought], ‘We’re both going to get old. We’ll both be at the 50-year Lakers anniversary,’” O’Neal told People. “Other things shouldn’t have been more important [than getting in touch], but little things [got in the way].”
O’Neal previously addressed his rocky relationship with Bryant when he spoke publicly at the celebration of life event in February 2020. Likening himself and the Hall of Fame shooting guard to the John Lennon and Paul McCartney of basketball, the former Lakers big man said the pair’s rivalry led to some of the “greatest basketball of all time.”
“Kobe and I pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time … And, yes, sometimes, like immature kids, we argued, we fought, we bantered or insulted each other with off-handed remarks,” O’Neal said in his speech. “But make no mistake, even when folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras were turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other and say, ‘Let’s go whoop some ass.’ “
O’Neal told People that time has yet to give him further perspective on Bryant’s death, but that he does have advice for anyone looking to reconnect with family members or loved ones.
“Call your mom. Call your brother. Call the homeboy you used to party with in college,” he said. “Forever is a long time.”
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