“Kobe Bryant Jumped Into My Arms”: Shaquille O’Neal Shares Heartwarming Moment Despite ‘Sour’ Relationship With Lakers Guard

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant’s relationship isn’t only famous for how great they were on the court together. But rather, it was the contrast that perfect symphony had with the ugly screeching sound of their back and forth off the court. But as time passed, both Shaq and Kobe have come out to say that the sour beef could’ve been avoided completely. In fact, off-late, O’Neal has even been on a little tour to release the ‘truth’ behind how they truly were with each other. And his recent Instagram story proved to be yet another edition of the same thing.

The Big Diesel may have been a big hit in LA. However, after he and Kobe vehemently refused to stay together any longer, Shaquille was promptly traded to Miami. At the time, many thought this was a bonkers move. After all, at that stage, Bryant was not much more than a bright young player.

However, Jerry West had a vision. And with the Lakers having won 2 championships with the Black Mamba as their centerpiece, it’s hard to disagree with his decision.

“Kobe Bryant jumped into my arms”: Shaquille O’Neal asks everyone to remember the good with the bad

Given that both Kobe and Shaq were alphas, it was never going to be easy for them to get along. At the time, O’Neal was the main man already and took pride in it. However, as soon as he entered the NBA, Bryant chased after that title like a rabid dog. And frankly, that kind of competition is never conducive to any relationship, never mind a friendly one.

Yet, the Big Aristotle is here to tell the world that their relationship wasn’t all bad at all. Take a look at the tweet below to see a screenshot of his Instagram story. You can also find the post he shared, right below the tweet.

The caption of the post is a quote right from Shaquille O’Neal on his relationship with Kobe Bryant. When translated into English, it reads the following.

“Yes, my relationship with Kobe had its (bad) moments. But the reality is that when we won the ring (2000), there were thousands of people celebrating, screaming… but who jumped into my arms first?”

The picture in the Instagram post is the moment Shaq seems to be referring to. And admittedly, this picture makes it hard to deny the big man’s words. After all, would you ever get that kind of emotion out of people that hate each other?

In fact, as Shaquille O’Neal once revealed, a lot of the drama was drummed up by him, in a bizarre move to market himself.

Shaq loved the attention

To his credit, O’Neal has never tried to hide the fact that he loves attention. However, the fact of the matter is that Shaq would often go to extreme lengths to keep people talking about himself. And on one occasion, he revealed that he played up his beef with Kobe Bryant to do exactly that.

Quite frankly, we aren’t sure just how true Shaq’s words are on this one. However, given that this is him, it is entirely possible he used the negative publicity he claims to have created, to bolster himself. Either way, you can read about all the details right here.