Princewill Pius
Throughout their time on the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal won three back-to-back championships. If there’s anyone who can speak to his talent on the court, it’s Shaq. While he admitted the idea of speaking at Bryant’s memorial “pains me to my core,” O’Neal pulled it together to honor his dear pal. “As we know, the Black Mamba’s legacy will be more than just being one of the greatest basketball players of all time. And believe me, Kobe was truly a gifted and intelligent student of the game,” O’Neal said. “I remember him saying, ‘These guys are playing checkers, and I’m out here playing chess.’ And I would say, ‘I guess so, Kobe. I don’t know how to play chess.'”
Specifically, O’Neal reflected on the day that Bryant gained his respect. It all went down when fellow teammates were complaining about Bryant’s ball-hogging. “They said, ‘Shaq, Kobe’s not passing the ball.’ I said, ‘I’ll talk to him,'” O’Neal recalled. So that’s what he did: “I said, ‘Kobe, there’s no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ and Kobe said, ‘I know, but there’s an ‘M-E’ in that motherf***er.'”
As he shared that story, O’Neal had a giant grin on his face, as the camera panned to show the Staples Center crowd laughing and smiling along with him, including Bryant’s wife Vanessa. Given Bryant’s adamancy, O’Neal remembered then telling the team, “Just get the rebound, he’s not passing.”
Written by: Nicki
