In August, former NBA guard Raja Bell — who played with Shaquille O’Neal on the Phoenix Suns — said Shaq used to use secret signals on the Los Angeles Lakers so his teammates wouldn’t pass the ball to Kobe Bryant.
Kristine Leahy of FS1 Sports did a one-on-one interview with O’Neal recently and asked the Hall of Famer if what Bell said was true.
In typical Shaq fashion, the former Lakers star gave a vague answer and instead tried to be funny to change the subject and take some pressure off of him.
Did @SHAQ have a secret in-game code to shut @kobebryant down? I’m getting to the bottom of this… pic.twitter.com/jFwqukC1jX
— Kristine Leahy (@KristineLeahy) September 24, 2019
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant won three titles together on the Lakers, but as we all know, they didn’t have the best relationship. The dynamic duo split up after the 2004 season when the Purple and Gold traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat.
The Diesel won a title with Dwyane Wade in South Beach, while Bryant won two more championships with the Lakers with Pau Gasol by his side. Shaq and Kobe are on good terms now, but one can surmise that Bell's story is true based off the way O'Neal was hesitating to answer the question.
This is a pretty fascinating situation. It sheds some light on just how tenacious the relationship between Shaq and Kobe was back in the day.
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