Shaquille O’Neal spoke about a range of topics from his career during his recent appearance on Tom Brady’s Let’s Go podcast. Speaking to fellow host Jim Gray, O’Neal initially spoke about the kind of disagreements he had with his teammates, in the form of Penny Hardaway and Kobe Bryant. Shaq claimed that while he often disagreed with his teammates, there always existed a threshold of respect between them.
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This led to a confession from NBA Sportscaster and co-host Jim Gray, who claimed that Shaq called him Traitor Jay for years. O’Neal was apparently convinced that Gray considered Kobe to be the better player, and would leave no opportunity to call him a traitor for being on his teammate’s side.
Shaquille O’Neal speaks about disagreements with Kobe Bryant and Penny Hardaway
There have been innumerable reports of the kind of disagreements Shaq had with his most famous teammates. Both Penny Hardaway and Kobe had issues with O’Neal. However, according to Shaquille, there always existed a level of respect between them.
“What I learned about especially dealing with Penny Hardaway, Kobe, disagreements can always be there. Once the respect leaves, that is when you have trouble. So, like we had our things, but he respects me, I respect him,” he said, before Jim Gray intervened.
Gray hilariously revealed that while Shaq himself might have the utmost respect for Kobe, he called the sportscaster a “traitor for years.” Shaq was apparently unhappy with some of the comments that Jim Gray had made. This forced him to call him a traitor whenever he came across the now 63-year-old.
“You know what he called me for years? He called me Traitor Gray. He said I was on Kobe’s side. Remember you would see me on the layup line, and you would come all the way and say, ‘What are you gonna say about me today traitor Gray?” Gray revealed leading to laughter from all participants of the podcast.”
There is little doubt that O’Neal and Kobe formed one of the best NBA duos of all time. While the two did have moments where they lost their calm, the two players simply had the utmost respect for each other.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal both regretted some aspects of their relationship
While the two were the best of teammates, their mixed initial history meant that both of them regretted some aspect of the way they handled the other. Shaquille O’Neal had claimed in his book that he had been a bit too hard on Kobe, especially when the latter was a youngster.
Bryant, according to Shaq, did not know how to respond. Still, O’Neal claimed that it was his anger and Phil Jackson’s anger that led to him sometimes being a bit too hard on the then-youngster.
For Kobe, on the other hand, the interactions with Shaq were simply a chance to prove his leadership mettle. Bryant had said that he would want a do-over simply because he wanted to take on more of a leadership role during his conversations with Shaq.
While the two won 3 rings alongside each other, there was certainly room for improvement in some aspects of their relationship, especially initially. Both the players eventually only found good things to say about each other, even if things did not start off on the right foot.
