Shaq says rap shots at Kobe 'all done in fun'
O'Neal makes fun of Bryant's Finals loss, blames him for marriage breakup
 Barry Gossage / NBAE via Getty Images file Shaquille O'Neal greets Kobe Bryant before their game in February. |
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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.
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.
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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.”
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