Sometimes your dreams can trigger fond memories, and for Shaquille O'Neal, several of his involve Kobe Bryant.
O'Neal told People that the late Los Angeles Lakers star has been appearing in his dreams recently and has been reminiscing about some of their career highlights.
“If I lay there the first five minutes, I don't go to sleep, then I just start dreaming, and last night I was dreaming about me and Kobe and all the championships we won,” he told the outlet.
O'Neal adds, “I just replayed and recreated us riding in the parade and just having good times. Before I knew it, it was 9 a.m.”
Bryant and O'Neal were teammates for eight seasons on the Lakers, from 1996 to 2004. The duo won three consecutive NBA championships together from 2000 to 2002.
Shaquille O'Neal keeps up with Kobe Bryant's family
The brotherhood that O'Neal and Bryant had still runs deep as the four-time NBA champion continues to care for the late NBA legend's family. Bryant died in 2020 alongside his daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant and seven others in a helicopter crash. Since then, O'Neal has been diligent on keeping in touch with Bryant's mom and sisters.
“Their mom has been through a lot in a couple of years, and that takes a toll, and sometimes you just need somebody to just call to check on you,” Shaq told People last month. “I kind of know what it feels like with the passing of her son, but I don't know what it feels like to lose a son and a husband, so I'm sure she has a lot of pain that she's dealing with,” he says, referring to the death of Kobe's father, Joe Bryant. Joe died in 2024 from a stroke.
After Bryant's tragic death, O'Neal was honest about their “complex” relationship but were successful together nonetheless.
“As many of you know, Kobe and I had a very complex relationship through the years,” O'Neal said in his speech honoring Bryant, “but not unlike another leadership duo, John Lennon and Paul McCartney, whose creative rivalry led to some of the greatest music of all time.”
At the time, he also thought of how his future looks so different without Bryant and that he is no longer going to make a memory with him that he always thought he would have.
“[I thought], ‘We're both going to get old. We'll both be at the 50-year Lakers anniversary,” he told PEOPLE two years after the NBA star's death.
