photo courtesy of Sports Illustrated
On a recent episode of Drink Champs hosted by N.O.R.E and DJ Efn, they brought on guest Shaquille O’Neal to talk about his NBA career and continuing in the industry without Kobe Bryant. The two men were teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers.
The conversation about Bryant started with talking about how well Shaq used to work with him on and off the court. A question was posed to Shaq to choose between Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant. He chose the late legend.
Shaq explained his answer, “Kobe was a different animal. I used to see Kobe dribble and shoot with no ball for an hour, then go out there and do the same move.”
He continued recalling how similar he and Bryant were in attitudes.
“Me and Kobe had similar attitudes. Kobe wanted to be the best ever. I wanted to be the best at killing you. He used to practice four or five hours a day. I’m not doing that because my attitude was, ‘Why am I practicing four or five hours for you? Who are you? I already know what I got to do.’”
He finished by saying that no one would replicate the chemistry they had while they were on the court.
The recollection was not without mourning. The sports legend shared deep regrets about not contacting Bryant when he was around. Shaq admitted that he and the late player had some rough patches while they both played for the LA Lakers. and although they worked through it prior to the accident that took Bryant, Shaq wishes that he called the other more.
“You wake up, and they’re not here, so if I could just see him one last time…and we just argue, play, I would love to have that. To all the people out there, if you have discrepancies with somebody, but you still love and care about them, reach out. You ain’t gotta see them, you ain’t gotta hug them and kiss them, just send them a text,” He offered as advice to watchers.