Skip navigation

Shaq says rap shots at Kobe 'all done in fun'

O'Neal makes fun of Bryant's Finals loss, blames him for marriage breakup

Image: Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant
Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images file
Shaquille O'Neal greets Kobe Bryant before their game in February.
Slideshow
Golden State Warriors v Dallas Mavericks, Game 1
  Dancers from around the league
Check out some of the dancers from the NBA.

more photos

Video: NBA from NBC Sports
Abdul-Jabbar managing his illness
Nov. 15: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar wants to be very clear that his cancer was caught early and that he's not dealing with a death sentence.

  Ask the NBA expert: Ira Winderman

Do you have a burning question about your favorite team or player? Submit it now, and then check back for our reader mailbag on the 1st and 15th of each month.

updated 8:38 p.m. ET June 24, 2008

NEW YORK - Just in case anybody had forgotten that Kobe Bryant has never won an NBA title without Shaquille O’Neal, the big man sent out a reminder.

The Phoenix Suns center can be seen rapping that “Kobe couldn’t do without me” in a video posted online at celebrity news and gossip site TMZ.com

During the two-minute video, a grinning O’Neal lurches through an improvised rap in which he skewers the Lakers’ star, with whom he won three straight NBA titles from 2000-2002 while with Los Angeles.

Story continues below ↓
advertisement | your ad here

The video shows O’Neal center stage at a New York club Sunday night, in which he also labels his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate as the source behind his failed marriage.

“I’m a horse, Kobe ratted me out, that's why I'm getting divorced," O'Neal says on the video. "He said Shaq gave a (woman) a mil. I don't do that 'cause my name's Shaquille. I love 'em, I don't leave 'em. I got a vasectomy, now I can't breed 'em."

(Click to watch the video on TMZ.com.)

“I was freestyling. That’s all. It was all done in fun. Nothing serious whatsoever,” O’Neal told ESPN.com Monday. “That is what MC’s do. They freestyle when called upon. I’m totally cool with Kobe. No issue at all.”

"And by the way, don't forget, six albums, two platinum, two gold. Anybody who knows me knows I'm a funny freestyler. Check the NBA DVD when I was rapping about Vlade Divac during my first championship run. Please tell everybody don't make something out of nothing.”

O’Neal and Bryant last played together in 2004. After a long-simmering feud came to a boil in public, O’Neal was traded to Miami before the 2004-05 season, and won an NBA championship with the Heat in 2006.

Bryant and the Lakers didn’t reach the finals again until earlier this month, when the Boston Celtics beat them 4-2.

“You know how I be,” Shaq rapped. “Last week Kobe couldn’t do without me.”

O’Neal, who has recorded seven albums, also said he is “the difference between first and last place” and even took a jab at former New York Knicks center Patrick Ewing’s lack of championship rings.

Slide show
Image: Ding Jianjun
  Week in Sports Pictures
Pain on the skating rink, flying high on the hardwood, upsets on the football field, and more.

more photos

O’Neal’s rap also took aim at the Lakers’ team struggles in their six-game NBA Finals plight against the Boston Celtics. But his chorus was a challenge specific to Bryant: “Tell me how my ass tastes.”

The tenuous relationship between the three-time co-NBA champions stems from a comment Bryant made during his 2003 rape case in Eagle, Colo. He referenced Shaq in his testimony to local detectives, claiming the center paid up to $1 million to various women.

“He should have done what Shaq does ... that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything," Bryant said, Eagle, Colo., police reported.

In recent seasons, the feud appeared to mellow, with O’Neal endorsing Bryant as deserving of the league’s MVP award this year. But Bryant’s failure to win his first championship solo this season kept O’Neal ahead in the ring race, 4-3.

Shaq's final message in the rap pointed to Bryant’s struggles without his former man in the middle.

"Kobe, you can't do without me.”

© 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Sponsored links