NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal has revealed his regret of not keeping in more regular contact with fellow LA Lakers great Kobe Bryant following his death in 2020.
The Lakers’ superstar duo won three championships together during a golden era for the franchise from 1996-2004, but the pair didn’t have the closest relationship off the court and their run together wasn’t without controversy.
Upon hearing the tragic news of Bryan’s passing — which came only a couple of months after O’Neal had lost his younger sister after her third battle with cancer — O’Neal says he was so shocked he thought it was a hoax.
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“I just broke down, the fact that I didn’t even get a chance to talk him. He works, I work, I don’t like to bother people,” O’Neal said his ‘An Evening with Shaq’ interview in Melbourne on Thursday night.
“We made history together, I should‘ve been the one to just call once a week or text once a month or once a year, (say), ‘happy birthday, how’s your kids?’ We never did that, so kind of still sits with me.
“So anybody you’re thinking about or anybody you haven’t talked to in a while — send them a text, give them a call — because once they’re gone, they’re gone forever.”
O’Neal recounted when he was first told about a young Bryant coming through the ranks when O’Neal made the move from the Orlando Magic to the Lakers in 1996 on a landmark seven-year, $120 million deal, which at the time made him the highest-paid player in NBA history.
“I had told them (my management), ‘I want $150 million, don’t call me until you get $150 million or close to $150 million,” he said.
“So we were going back and fourth, it was about 2am — I still had about two hours left (at the adult entertainment club he was at). I get the call and my guy says, ‘you’ve got to get over here,’ so I get over there.
“When he pulled the piece of paper out I’ve never seen so many zeros in my life. He said, ‘I’ve got some good news, I’ve got some bad news. I can’t get you $150 million, but I can get you $120 million.
“Right when I was signing he (former Lakers general manager Jerry West) stopped my hand (and said), ‘man I just acquired this 18-year old kid, we just got him from Charlotte, his name is Kobe Bryant.’
“And the great Jerry West said, ‘you and him are going to win multiple championships.’ And I’m like, ‘yeah OK Jerry, whatever’.”
O’Neal described a young Bryant as “super anxious” who“ wanted to be great at 18,” but the more the team tried to slow him down, the harder he worked.
“He was an 18-year old, he wasn’t really that good. He was good, but he came off the bench, he really didn’t play a lot,” he said.
“He’s a guy who, similar to myself, if you tell him he can’t do something, he’s going to go in the lab and practice it,” he said.
“We used to tell him all the time, ‘you can’t talk that shot because you’re not going to make it.’ So he was just practice and practice and practice and over practice.”
NEAR-DEATH EXPERIENCE THAT ‘CHANGED MY LIFE’
Discipline was a big part of O’Neal’s life growing up, with he and his family moving to Germany when he was still a teenager because of his stepfather’s career in the army.
Looking back, O’Neal described his younger self as a “high-level juvenile delinquent” who at times got beaten up by his dad to keep him in line.
“In America we call it a spanking,” O’Neal said. “He (his dad) would always say, be a leader’ — but I was a follower and I used to do crazy things.”
The was until a near-death experience that O’Neal said “changed my life” when he was 16 or 17 when a group of his friends were out drinking one night.
“They decided to drive in Germany during a winter storm. Something told me not to get in the car, and I didn’t get in the car, and everybody in the car passed away,” he revealed.
“After that I was like, ‘you know what, I have to be a leader. I can’t just follow guys because I’m trying to be cool’.”
LOOKING AFTER HIS PARENTS WITH HIS FIRST $1 MILLION
The 50-year old stressed that upon first entering the NBA in 1992, his main priority was helping fulfil his parents’ dreams of how they always wanted a house, a separate car and clothes, instead of his basketball career.
O’Neal shared the infamous story of how he spent a big portion of his first $1 million payday on his parents.
“My agent calls me and says, ‘hey, I have got a $1 million car deal for you.’ So I get the cheque … I wasn’t really financially educated at this point, but I had to do it,” he said.
“The first thing is I bought myself a Mercedes for $150,000 … I got (my dad) the exact same identical car, I got my mum a car, I got some suits and jewellery.
“A couple of days the bank manager called me and he showed me there was $300,000 taken by a guy named FICA (tax). I’m upset, I’m like, ‘who the hell is FICA?’ I didn’t know anything about sales tax, state tax, any of that.”
“But the fact that I could just take care of my family right away, that was what I was focused on then. And then I moved them to San Antonio, bought them a house, bought myself a house.”
O’Neal said it was “beautiful” to buy his mum a house and revealed the touching moment when she broke down after he surprised her with the gift.
“It was a big house — a house that she could only dream of having. She cried, I’ve never seen somebody from key to hand and the tears come out right away,” he said.
“I tricked her, I was like ‘let’s go look for houses.’ So we went and saw this house. I said, ‘you like this house? It’s yours.’ And then the tears started, (she said), ‘oh we can’t afford it,’ I said, ‘it’s already paid for lady’.”
FIRST BATTLE WITH MJ
O’Neal joined the NBA during a period when Michael Jordan had completely taken over the league and the dominant Chicago Bulls were in the midst of their first three-peat of title triumphs from 1991-1993.
He described Jordan as the “greatest player ever” in basketball and recalled how daunting it was to play against him for the first time.
“Seven hundred days before that I’m watching this guy on TV,” O’Neal said of Jordan. “But once you get the butterflies out it’s different.”
“He came down and did a move so beautiful, it was like, ‘oh my god, this guy is the best ever.’ The second time he came down and did the move .. I was really close to blocking his shot. Now I said to myself, ‘oh you’re human? I thought you were a god, but you’re human’.”
O’Neal has made sure to remind people of a claim he has over the Bulls legend.
“I win a lot of money in bets — I ask people, ‘who was the last person to beat Michael Jordan in a playoff situation?’ It was me in 1994-95 — Orlando Magic v the Chicago Bulls,” he said.
SHAQ’S SON ‘LIKE GIANNIS WITH A JUMP SHOT’
There’s another O’Neal now coming through the ranks, with the four-time championship’s son, Shareef, looking to follow in his father’s footsteps and break into the NBA.
Shareef, who spent three seasons at LSU but went undrafted, is now playing in the G League after a Summer League stint with the Lakers.
Shaquille still has high hopes for his son, even comparing him to dual MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, but wanted to see a nastier side from the 22-year old.
“He’s a fabulous player — he’s like Giannis with a jump shot — but he has to figure out how to harness that energy. He’s just too nice right now, a very nice, respectful kid,” O’Neal said of his son.
“I always tell him, ‘if a guy tries to bowl up against you, put your elbow right in his teeth and knock his teeth out’. That’s how you do it.”
Shaquille admitted he tries to “get super involved but not super involved” with his son’s basketball.
“He’s going to have to learn how to handle his own rings. He knows and understands I have the answers to the test, and if he wants to ask me a question I’ll be there for him,” he said.
“I wanted him to stay in school for another year, but he wanted to go, so as a father you have to support that. He played Summer League and didn’t make the team and now he’s in the G-League. That’s his process of making it, everyone’s process is going to be different.”
