"You missed this many free throws, you rapping, you're doing movies" - Shaquille O'Neal recalls his apparent "beef" with Kobe Bryant

NBA legends Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant didn’t always see eye to eye during their eight seasons together with the LA Lakers. However, O’Neal still always had a level of respect for Bryant.

Shaquille O’Neal recently appeared on the “Impaulsive with Logan Paul” podcast. During the podcast, an audience member asked him to speak about his “beef” with Kobe Bryant. O’Neal then gave a detailed, heartfelt answer. First, he started by talking about his respect for Bryant.

“We used to butt heads, but you could never lose respect,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal then spoke about how he knew he needed Bryant’s help to be successful.

“So me being the leader of the team, I knew what I had," O'Neal said. "I used to mess with him all the time. Because I already know, I'm giving you 28,29,30,40. Now I've got to get him to give me that because I could never do it by myself. It had to be a 1-2 punch. So we would go back and forth."

O’Neal later recounted a moment when he and Kobe Bryant embraced after their first NBA Championship back in 2000.

“But if you look at all the documentaries, the first championship there’s 20,000 people in the arena, and I go and put my hands up like this, and the floor opens up. And who's the first person that jumps in my arms? Kobe Bryant,” O’Neal said.

O’Neal also explained the importance of pushing people’s buttons and talked about his leadership style.

“As the leader, sometimes you have to push buttons," O'Neal said. "When you're a leader, you either focus on the relationship or you focus on the task. And studies show sometimes when you focus on the relationship, the task dwindles. Sometimes when you focus on the task, the relationship dwindles. I'm a task-driven leader."

“I gotta win the championship because if we lose, they're coming at me. You missed this many free throws, you rapping, you're doing movies. So I got to do whatever I got to do, push all the buttons and make everybody perform at a high level."

Finally, Shaquille O’Neal ended with a joke about his former teammate.

“So it wasn't really beef," O'Neal said. "It was just disagreement sometimes because he wanted to shoot all the time and I said, 'No, you need to pass to me all the time.' So it wasn’t that it was beef."

Shaquille O'Neal's complete discussion on his “beef” with Kobe Bryant starts at the 42:42 mark in the video below.

Shaquille O’Neal compares his relationship with Kobe Bryant to Logan Paul’s relationship with his brother

Jake Paul v Anderson Silva - Press Conference

During the same discussion about his relationship with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal touched on the similarities to Logan Paul’s relationship with his brother Jake Paul.

“What I like about you and your brother, I see you guys argue all the time. But at the end, the respect is there. That’s why y’all are close,” O’Neal said. "Like I saw you and your brother fighting one time, and at the end of the night you guys were together. I was like, those guys are close."

Logan Paul later agreed with the sentiment.

“Yeah, he’s my brother. There have been times in my life where the saying was I don’t like my brother, but I love my brother,” Paul said.

The Paul brothers have done well for themselves over the years. They went from social media influencers to entering the mainstream world of sports and entertainment. Love them or hate them, they are now some of the most influential celebrities in the world.