SI SHAQUILLE O’Neal emosyonal nga namahayag ug nagkanayong wa siya magdahum sa klase sa kamatayon nga dangatan sa higala ug kanhi kauban nga si Kobe Bryant.

“The fact that we lost probably the world’s greatest Laker, the world’s greatest basketball player is just — listen, people are going to say take your time and get better, but this is going to be hard for me. I already don’t sleep anyway, but I’ll figure it out.”

Dugang niya, “I never could have imagined nothing like this. I was thinking the other day I’ve never seen anything like this. All the basketball idols that I grew up (watching), I see them. They’re old.”

Si O’Neal ug Bryant nagkumboya sa Lakers aron angkunon ang tulo ka sunod nga kampeyonato gikan 2000 hangtod 2002.

Apan nagkabikil ang duha, diin si O’Neal gi-trade sa Miami niadtong 2004.

Naangkon ni O’Neal ang laing titulo sa laing tim, samtang si Bryant nangharus sab og laing duha ka titulo alang sa Lakers.

Apan, naselyuhan ra sab ang ilang bikil, diin sagad silang mag-text sa usag-usa.

“The fact that we’re not going to be able to joke at his Hall of Fame ceremony, we’re not going to be able to say, ‘Hi, I’ve got five (rings), you’ve got four,’ the fact that we’re not going to say if we’d stayed together we could have got 10, those are the things you can’t get back.”