Almost ten years after they last played together, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal are finally done fighting, ESPN LA reports. Bryant spoke about his recently-repaired relationship with the former Los Angeles Lakers center after Shaq was escorted out of the Staples Center by actor and comedian Will Ferrell, who was posing as an usher and intentionally singled O'Neal out.
Both players have had opportunities to badmouth the other in the past, with Shaq doing so in a rap of his own and Kobe calling Shaq out of shape during an interview, CBS Sports said.
O'Neal has been retired since June of 2011, after spending one season with the Boston Celtics. He and Bryant won the Lakers three straight NBA Finals from 2000 through 2002. O'Neal was the MVP in each of those championships, while Bryant added two straight Finals MVP's in 2009 and 2010, five and six seasons after Shaq left the Lakers, respectively. O'Neal won one championship with the 2006 Miami Heat, when Dwayne Wade earned the MVP honors.
Bryant says that he and O'Neal, "have a really, really good relationship now." He added that years apart from spending six months at a whack in each other's company continually made it easier to realize the fruits of their efforts. "I think that the further you get away from the history you had together, the more you put perspective on it on how dominant we were.
You can learn more about the history of Kobe Bryant's and Shaquille O'Neal's argument on Wikipedia.