THROWBACK: When Kobe Bryant Publicly Apologized Shaquille O’Neal Soon After he Moved From Los Angeles Lakers

While Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant will always be remembered for their great partnership on the court, the names sometimes bring their infamous feud into the mind.

Los Angeles Lakers brought in Shaquille O’Neal in 1996- when Kobe Bryant started his NBA career with them. Soon, they were the most enviable duo in the league. And at the turn of the century, they won three consecutive titles with the Lakers. While everything seemed to be perfect on the court, there were reports of a rift between them.

Soon, the rift led to Shaquille O’Neal moving out of the Lakers in 2004. Even after that, there were reports suggesting the rift was escalating. Bryant commented on O’Neal saying he paid women to keep their silence. Shaq, naturally, didn’t take kindly to it.

But it was not long before Bryant would offer a public apology.

“I never meant, in any kind of way, to bring anything with personal business,” he said talkng to Stephen A.Smith in 2004.

“I can only do what I feel is right. I feel it is right to go up and apologize to the man for bringing him into the situation. I never intended that to happen. Things were way overblown and misstated.”

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal soon patched up

After splitting teams in 2004, their feud didn’t stay long. When Dirk Nowitzki won the MVP award in 2007, Shaquille O’Neal made a statement saying Bryant deserved it. Two years later, O’Neal said he had always loved Bryant and it was media that escalated their rift.

“I always did love Kobe,” O’Neal said in an interview with ESPN in 2009. “It was all marketing. We’re still the greatest little-man, big-man 1-2 punch ever created in the history of the game.”

When Kobe Bryant died in January earlier this year, O’Neal expressed his grief calling Bryant his “little brother.”

“Mamba, you were taken away from us way too soon. Your next chapter of life is just beginning. It’s time for us to continue your legacy,” O’Neal said at the memorial service at the Staples Center held in memory of Bryant after his death.