One of basketball’s most famous partnerships ended not with a handshake, but with a trade, a public feud, and years of separation. Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant separated after winning three championships with the Los Angeles Lakers.

Although they exchanged messages on occasion, they were both too busy living their own lives after retirement to stay truly close. Following Bryant’s tragic death in January 2020, O’Neal confessed that his biggest regret was not calling more. However, that painful lesson has not brought O’Neal closer to athletes. If anything, it has pushed him further away.

In a candid interview with The New York Post, the four-time NBA champion made his current position on athletes and superstars unmistakably clear. “None,” he said when asked who among NBA players, past or present, he keeps in touch with. “I don’t like athletes or superstars because they’re a**holes. I denounced myself from being a celebrity about 10 years ago because those people are weird. I’m not weird.”

The 54-year-old, who won four NBA titles across 19 seasons and made 15 All-Star teams, has channeled his energy in an entirely different direction since he left the game. Far from the celebrity circles most retired superstars orbit, Shaq has planted himself firmly in the world of business and education, where he earned his PhD from Barry University in 2012 and is currently working on a master’s in liberal arts. “We talk about the NIL, what’s going on now. People always go to the money first, but you have to have the education on how to manage the money,” he said. “I want my children and those that follow me to say, ‘OK, he’s educated.'”

Low-Key, No Entourage, Just Business

The no-celebrity ethos extends to how O’Neal moves through the world day-to-day. Even when he visited the tech superstore tm:rw in Times Square, which he joined as an investor and partner, the approach is stripped back and deliberately understated. “Whenever I come, it’s me and two guys. No entourage. There’s nothing but homeboys coming in,” he said. “We come in here, we take care of business … We sign autographs. We treat people with honor and respect … I want to be a regular guy.”

He does, however, keep memorabilia from his Lakers days with the late Kobe Bryant. He stated that they “remind me of the greatest one-two punch ever.” It is the sole exception to an otherwise complete withdrawal from the athletic world.

A private acknowledgement of a collaboration that, despite everything, resulted in something neither man could have built alone. For everyone else in the locker room, past and present, the line has been drawn. The phone remains quiet. And Shaquille O’Neal wouldn’t want it any other way.