Los Angeles Lakers‘ twosome awesome – Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant – are one of the most explosive duos of the NBA world. Among them, Bryant rose up to the ‘GOAT’ race at a very young age. Both stats and statements from legends set him on the highest pedestal. Despite such a big stature, the Big Dieselcalled a 23-year-old rising star as ‘Young Kobe Bryant’ after getting impressed by his skills. Following that, the Big Shaq gave a nod to his biggest rival’s James Harden comment involving Bryant.

Ever since his retirement, Shaquille O’Neal has been actively watching the proceeds of the game from close quarters. Apart from his NBA analyst stint at the TNT, he also shares basketball content on his social media. Likewise, in his recent Instagram story, he shared an interview snippet of his biggest rivalry.

Dwight Howard draws a parallel with the iconic Kobe-Shaq duo

Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal have a longstanding history of rivalry. Even though both stars began their career as a #1 draft pick for the Orlando Magic, they openly expressed their dislike for each other on various occasions. Notably, the duo shared the same nickname (Superman) for a long time. Surprisingly, even after sharing a rough relationship, Shaq shared Howard’s statement about James Harden involving Kobe Bryant on his Instagram.

In a recent viral interview with Math Hoff, Howard discussed a wide array of topics relating to NBA. Notably, in a particular segment, he spoke about Harden. “When I saw James Harden,” he said, “I saw him as a younger version of Kobe, I don’t know why I was thinking that.”

As soon as he finished, the hosts giggled, prompting a quick Howard response, “No disrespect to James.” 

To be more precise, before moving to Harden’s Houston Rockets in 2013, Howard spent a season with Bryant at the Lakers.

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Furthermore, he went on to talk about the possibilities of his partnership with Harden if it lasted for more than 3 seasons. Notably, Shaq shared the interview snippet without commenting anything about it.

Whom did Shaq call ‘Young Kobe Bryant’?

In 2022, Shaq found the shades of Kobe Bryant’s balling prowess in the Memphis Grizzlies star, Ja Morant. Despite his controversies off the court, Morant continued to produce great figures in every game he played in the last season.

During one of the episodes of Inside Guys in 2022, Shaq said, “Kobe had that ‘it’ factor when I met him at 17 years old. He knew that he was the man. He knew that one day, he was gonna be the greatest player ever. That’s what I think about when I think about this cat right here [Morant].”

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What do you make of Dwight Howard’s statement about James Harden? Let us know in the comments.