Lakers News: Shaquille O'Neal Reacts To Kobe Bryant's Selection To the 75 Greatest Players Ever
Recently, the NBA announced the top 75 players to ever play. This was an obvious choice and there would have been riots had he not been selected. All of that said, it was nice to see The Black Mamba pick up another accolade.
"Inside The NBA" is an NBA institution. The four usual panelists are Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith, Ernie Johnson, and Shaquille O'Neal. For this panel, they also had hall-of-fame player Dwyane Wade.
The title and thumbnail are very click-baity so let's just get that out of the way. O'Neal doesn't get emotional in the way the thumbnail suggests. He did have some kind words for Bryant, however.
"One of the greatest ever do it. I remember after I left Penny hardaway, I had no idea about this guy, but I remember during the Olympics, I was at Magic City. And my agent at the time, Leonard Armato said to come meet with Jerry West. So we meet with Jerry, and Jerry West opened up a piece of paper. I'd never seen so many zeros in my life and I signed right away. The first thing Jerry said to me was 'I'm getting a kid named Kobe Bryant and you guys are going to win multiple championships.'"
The Bryant/O'Neal Lakers won three consecutive titles and probably could have or should have won more had not egos and other issues. Bryant of course went on to win two other NBA championships.
O'Neal and Bryant's beef over the years has been largely overblown, according to O'Neal. It is likely that O'Neal started saying this only after a decade-plus went by, and the two were able to bury the hatchet. Luckily, they were able to do so before Bryant's tragic passing in 2020.
O'Neal also made the top 75 list of course, as O'Neal was arguably the most dominant big man of all time, certainly of his prime.
