Kobe, Shaq feud explained on O’Neal’s podcast

ONCE a bitter rivalry, former LA Lakers pairing Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal have explained their long-running “beef”.

‘I was an idiot when I was a kid’

WELL-DOCUMENTED to this point is the bitter feud between NBA legends Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

The majority of NBA fans will know the story of how the former Los Angeles Lakers stars didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye during their playing days.

For those not in the know, they pretty much hated each other.

Despite being one of the most successful pairings in the NBA, winning three consecutive championships between 2000-2002, the two were notorious for giving each other stick in their constant media to-and-fro.

At one point their distain for each other became so bad that Shaq threatened to kill Kobe.

Now a new chapter to the Kobe v Shaq battle has been written, as the two sat down on-air during O’Neal’s radio show “The Big Podcast with Shaq”.

In a preview excerpt, Bryant explained the role his immaturity at the time had played in the pair not getting along.

“Here’s the thing, though, when you say it at the time you actually mean it and then when you get older you have more perspective and you’re like holy s**t, I was an idiot when I was a kid,” Bryant said.

“To me, the most important thing was really just keep your mouth shut. You don’t need to go to the press with stuff. You keep it internal and we have our arguments and our disagreements, but I think having our debates within the press was something I wish would’ve been avoided, but it did kind of create this whirlwind around us as a team with myself and Shaq and the press and the media that just put so much pressure on us as an organisation.”

"It was more of a office beef. When I look back, I would do it all over again." -@SHAQ on his relationship with @kobebryant

— SiriusXM NBA Radio (@SiriusXMNBA) August 27, 2015

Shaq put the pair’s “office beef” down to the clash of two dominant personalities.

“It was just two alpha males, the business aspect kicks in, and I was getting older,” he said.

“A lot of stuff was said out of the heat of the moment.”

At least two old heads could finally agree on something.

The full podcast is due to go to air on Sunday night AEST.