Rookie hazing has always been a thing in the NBA, but Shaquille O’Neal found out very quickly that it wasn’t something he was allowed to do to Kobe Bryant.
“I hazed Kobe one time and it’s like the FBI came to my room the next morning,” O’Neal said on The Big Podcast with Shaq. “S*** yeah, it’s like, ‘He off limits.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean he’s off limits?’… Jerry West came out, Mitch Kupchak, Magic (Johnson) brought his punk a** down there, they like, ‘Hey man, leave him alone.'”
O’Neal decided to leave Bryant alone, as he himself had refused to carry out instructions like carrying bags when he was a rookie. It is interesting, though, that Jerry West, Mitch Kupchak, and Magic Johnson all showed up at O’Neal’s door the next day to tell him to back off.
Bryant had just entered the NBA out of high school, of course, which might have had something to do with it. O’Neal also didn’t elaborate on what exactly he did to Kobe as part of the hazing, and knowing how wild he could get with his teammates, it might have been really bad.
Tyronn Lue once revealed that O’Neal took a dump in his teammate’s shoes just because he did not get something like donuts that he had been asked to get. In another instance, O’Neal peed in the shoes of a teammate of his on the Phoenix Suns. It is clear the Hall of Famer would do just about anything he wanted, without caring too much about how disgusting it was.
Gilbert Arenas Said Jerry Buss Also Told Shaquille O’Neal That He Couldn’t Haze Kobe Bryant
As if West, Kupchak, and Magic weren’t enough, another big name also made it clear that Kobe was off-limits. Gilbert Arenas revealed Jerry Buss told O’Neal and his teammates that they couldn’t haze Bryant when he was a rookie.
“Mark Cuban is like Jerry Buss when he had the Lakers. Magic Johnson is his guy, Kobe is his guy. People don’t realize. When Kobe got drafted, Jerry Buss told Shaq and the Lakers ‘he’s off limits, you cannot haze him. There’s no rookie hazing him. F*ck off’… That’s the type of future they seen in him, protecting him all the time”.
Protecting Kobe certainly worked for Buss and the Los Angeles Lakers, as he went down as arguably the greatest player in franchise history. Bryant spent all 20 seasons of his NBA career with L.A. and won five championships along the way.
Kobe finished with impressive career averages of 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, 4.7 assists, 1.4 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. He also remains the Lakers’ all-time leader in games, points, and steals.
Shaquille O’Neal Shared How He Motivated Kobe Bryant
While hazing wasn’t allowed, there was nothing stopping O’Neal from using his own interesting motivational tactics on Bryant. He revealed he would motivate Kobe by agitating him, and said players with his mentality did not respond to any other kind of motivation.
O’Neal compared Bryant to a pitbull and stated he p***ed him off to ensure he remained a pitbull. Ultimately, however, these two ended up clashing just a bit too much behind the scenes, and it led to O’Neal’s departure in 2004. Fortunately, they mended fences before Bryant passed away in 2020.
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