They say "absence makes the heart grow fonder." That phrase seems to even hold true when it comes to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal. After feuding with each other, season after season, as teammates, one of the strongest duos in NBA history were eventually broken up and plenty of "what ifs" entered the minds of Lakers fans everywhere. However, after years apart, it looks like things have gotten a lot better between Shaq and Kobe.
“Shaq and I have a really, really good relationship now," Bryant said. "It’s good. I think it’s a good lesson for all of us." And what is that lesson? "I think we appreciate each other more now than ever," Bryant said. "I think the further you get away from the history that you had together, the more you put perspective on it on how dominant we were."
"The challenge for me was to show [O'Neal] and show everybody else that I could win without him," Bryant said. "And point proven. So, I’m fine either way. I took it as an honor and as a challenge to be a player that could play a supporting role and then move from that and take the leading role and win that way as well. I took a lot of pride of that, but I also took a lot of pride in kind of being a floor general and letting [O'Neal] do his thing." [...] "It’s fun for us to kind of get together again and kind of reminisce on some of the old stories," Bryant said. "It’s fun. It’s good to see him.”
Oh, this isn't going to sit well with Lake Show supporters. So, now that Shaq is long gone, these two finally decide to patch things up? Man, imagine if they worked things out earlier? It's enough to make a Lakers fan physically ill.
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[via SLAM]
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