Five years removed from Kobe Bryant's death, and his former Los Angeles Lakers teammate, Shaquille O'Neal, still keeps in touch with Bryant's mom. O'Neal berated Bleacher Report for ranking Kobe No. 11 in its top 100 players of all time. Then, he opened up about his newfound relationship with Black Mamba's mom, who he often checks in with regularly.

O'Neal says he's in constant communication with Bryant's mom in a recent interview of Off The Record, per HoopsHype.

“I’m really close with [Kobe's] mother now. We talk all the time, 'cause I know her pain,” O'Neal said. “So I just call her, just to check on her—see if she needs anything. Flowers, love you, miss you—stuff like that. So, you know, a lot of people think our relationship was something else—but it wasn’t. Like I always tell people, y’all really focus on the drama.”

After winning three consecutive NBA championships (2000, 2001, 2002) together with the Lakers, O'Neal and Bryant had a falling out, which led to the Lakers trading Shaq to the Miami Heat. O'Neal would go on to win a championship with the Heat in 2006 before Los Angeles traded for Pau Gasol, who helped Bryant win two out of three consecutive NBA Finals appearances in 2009 and 2010.

However, the relationship between the two improved after Bryant retired in 2016, which was years before Kobe died in a helicopter crash in 2020.

Shaquille O'Neal ranks his Top 10 players of all-time

A statue of Kobe Bryant at Crypto.com Arena
Kirby Lee-Imagn Images
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Before Bleacher Report unveiled its Top 100 NBA players of all-time to much criticism last week, Hall of Fame center Shaquille O'Neal revealed his top-10 list, which featured the Lakers great Kobe Bryant in the top tier. For O'Neal, Bryant is No. 2 behind Michael Jordan and followed by LeBron James, Magic Johnson, and Celtics great Larry Bird in his top 5.

With two Hall of Fame guards and one still wearing purple and gold, O'Neal's list isn't short of Lakers greats in the upper echelon of the franchise he helped lead to three consecutive titles in the early 2000s. O'Neal was modest enough to leave himself off the list, whereas B/R listed Shaq at No. 6. Here's what the rest of his list looks like:

Shaq's top-10 listed below:

  1. Michael Jordan
  2. Kobe Bryant
  3. LeBron James
  4. Magic Johnson
  5. Bill Russell
  6. Wilt Chamberlain
  7. Larry Bird
  8. Hakeem Olajuwon
  9. Tim Duncan
  10. Julius Erving

Not a bad list from a Hall of Fame center, who pays respect to a handful of bigs that came before him.

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