Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal made headlines this week as they traded insults — but Dwight Howard was able to fix their feud, sort of.
Earlier this week, Bryant called out his former teammate in an interview, saying if O'Neal had his work ethic he’d be the greatest of all time.
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”This guy was a force like I have never seen," said Bryant about his nine seasons with O'Neal on the Lakers. "It was crazy. Generally, guys at that size are a little timid and they don't want to be tall, they don't want to be big. I mean this dude did not care, he was mean, he was nasty, he was competitive, he was vindictive. I mean he was, yeah, I wish he was in the gym. I would have had f—king 12 rings."
It didn't take long for O'Neal to respond to Bryant's comments.
"U woulda had twelve [rings] if u passed the ball more especially in the finals against the pistons," he commented on an Instagram post, referring to the Lakers' loss to the Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals. "You don't get statues by not working hard."
When Bryant tried to play down the drama between himself and O'Neal on Twitter, O'Neal decided he would through some shade at Howard.
It’s all good bro, when I saw the interview, I thought you were talking about Dwite, is that how u spell his name lol
— SHAQ (@SHAQ) August 28, 2019
It's the second time this week O'Neal has dissed Howard.
TMZ Sports asked O'Neal about Howard's return to the Lakers, and O'Neal responded, "Who?"
The rivalry between Howard and O'Neal stems from Howard's usage of the "Superman" nickname, which was one of O'Neal's nicknames during his playing career.
Howard responded to O'Neal's diss late Wednesday.
"It's okay, I'm not here to talk about Shaq," said Howard on Instagram Live. "What he said, what he did. It's irrelevant to what I'm trying to do. So, don't talk to me about what anybody else said about me. My focus is on one thing."