"FBI came to my room the next morning": Shaquille O'Neal recalls the time he hazed Kobe Bryant
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant went through a lot of situations during their time together with the LA Lakers. The four-time NBA champion claimed on this week's edition of 'The Big Podcast' that he once hazed Bryant.
"I hazed Kobe one time and it's like the FBI came to my room the next morning," O'Neal said. "They said, 'He off limits.' I said, 'What you mean he off limits?' They were like, 'Bro, he off limits.' Jerry West came down, Mitch Kupchak, Magic [Johnson] brought his punk a** down there and like, 'Hey man, leave him alone.'"
Shaq recalled he had a similar experience during his rookie year, but he made it clear he wasn't doing any chores.
"And the only reason I didn't mess with him was because when I got to Orlando, Scott Skiles told me, 'Lift these bags.' I said, 'I don't do that, bro.' He said, 'You're a rookie.' I said, 'No, no. I'm not a rookie. I'm Shaq. I ain't lifting no motherf***ing bag.'"
Over the years, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant clashed more than once, even starting a feud that lasted years and allegedly sent the big man to Miami in 2004. A lot of water has gone under the bridge since and O'Neal and Bryant made amends before the Black Mamba tragically died in a helicopter accident in 2020.
Shaquille O'Neal names difference between Kobe Bryant, Penny Hardaway
In a July episode of his podcast, Shaquille O'Neal explained what differentiated Kobe Bryant from Penny Hardaway, Shaq's first partner. O'Neal believed Hardaway was more ready than Bryant when he made it to the league, whereas Kobe needed to work harder to crack into the Lakers rotation.
“They [fans] ask me all the time, they say, ‘Who’s better, Penny or Kobe?’ And I’ll always say, Penny [Hardaway] was Kobe [Bryant] before Kobe. … They act like they don’t understand what I’m talking about.
“Penny came in Day 1 like this. Kobe, first year: don’t start. Second year: didn’t start. Third year: upstairs saying, ‘Okay, hey, it’s time for him to play.’ It took him 600 to 900 days to become the Black Mamba.”
O'Neal couldn't win a championship with Hardaway, but Bryant helped him get back-to-back-to-back titles in the early 2000s.