Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal squashed whatever beef was lingering from their split in 2004 on the latest episode of O’Neal’s The Big Podcast, which was released Monday. O’Neal introduces Bryant as “the greatest Laker ever,” and starts the show by clearing the air.
“I just want people to know that I don’t hate you. I know you don’t hate me. I called it today a ‘work beef,’ is what we had. I was young, you was young. As I look at it, we won three out of four so I don’t really think a lot was done wrong. I just wanted to clear the air and let everybody know that no, I don’t hate you. We had a lot of disagreements, we had a lot of arguments, but I think it both fueled us — and I was thinking back the other day why Phil Jackson never really jumped in, because he knew that you say something about me, I get pissed off, I say something about you and you get pissed off, and again it works.”
You can listen to the entire podcast below. Shaq’s conversation with Kobe begins at 10:35