Vanessa Bryant Had to Publically Dismiss Shaquille O’Neal After He Once Made an Unfounded Claim on Kobe Bryant and LeBron James

Published 03/13/2022, 10:00 AM EDT

In 2016, after a great historic 60-point performance in his final game, Kobe Bryant announced his retirement. Bryant said a great farewell to the NBA with his style. However, the team was not in great shape back then. They finished the season with the second-worst record in the season and had to rebuild the team.

In 2018, LeBron James signed a four-year contract with the Lakers after leaving the Cleveland Cavaliers. After that, many rumors surfaced concerning Bryant coming back from retirement and James’ joining the Lakers.

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It was especially striking when Shaquille O’Neal commented on this and said that it might be possible. In response, Vanessa Bryant publicly reprimanded O’Neal for making the unfounded claim against Kobe and LeBron.

The response came on Instagram, where Vanessa posted a video of them enjoying the weekend and wrote: “Kobe will not be coming out of retirement to play again. He doesn’t want to play again and frankly, we really enjoy spending time together as a family without the crazy game schedule interfering with birthdays, holidays, and special events.”

Shaquille O’Neal responds to Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa’s post

The rumor was not accompanied by a long controversy, since Bryant himself didn’t speak up about it. Bryant let the whole thing go. But it would have been interesting to see if such a thing would be possible to see Bryant play alongside James to help the Lakers further.

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In addition to the response and the answer Vanessa gave about this, Shaq discussed it on PodcastOne SportsNet’s The BIG Podcast with Shaq. Shaq said: “You play third, fourth quarter, we’ll let you do what you do, you and LeBron out there. LeBron running and kicking with you, and all you have to do is spot up and shoot jumpers 20 minutes a game.’ Kobe will think about that.”

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Shaq getting into a feud with someone with the last name Bryant is not new. Yet, it would have been great for Lakers fans to see their favorite player back in the jersey. In those days, it was pretty obvious that Bryant was enjoying his retirement with his family on vacation. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

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Anshika Rai is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. She is currently pursuing her bachelor's degree in journalism and mass communication. Anshika has been following NBA for many years now.

Vanessa Bryant Had to Publically Dismiss Shaquille O’Neal After He Once Made an Unfounded Claim on Kobe Bryant and LeBron James

Shaquille O’Neal responds to Kobe Bryant’s wife Vanessa’s post

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