Shaquille O'Neal regrets not sharing more about his feelings with former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant prior to Bryant's death in January.
"I don't want to see anybody go out like that and never to be able to talk to him again," O'Neal told Mark Medina of USA Today. "The thing that hurt me was all the stuff that I wanted to say, I hadn't said it. I never said it."
O'Neal and Bryant won three straight championships together with the Lakers from 2000-02, and while they had their share of issues, they appeared to be on good terms in recent years. Bryant was in attendance for the unveiling of O'Neal's statue outside Staples Center in 2017 and sat down with him later that year for a special TNT "Players Only" segment.
"There's a myth that you have to be best friends to win championships. We only have to have one thing, and that's respect," O'Neal said. "If he goes to the hole with four people coming, he's dropping it off to me. When I get double- or triple-teamed, I look for him first. He knows I need him. I'm damn sure he knows he needs me. I was just hurt I would never be able to tell him anything ever again."
