Shaquille O'Neal responds to Kobe Bryant's 'lazy' comment: You would've had 12 rings if you passed the ball

Chelsea Howard

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Shaquille O'Neal responds to Kobe Bryant's 'lazy' comment: You would've had 12 rings if you passed the ball image

It's been 15 years since Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal played together with the Lakers, but that doesn't mean their drama is over. 

During an interview earlier this month at the 10th annual PHP Agency Convention in Las Vegas with Patrick Bet-David, the founder of Valuetainment, Bryant took another shot at his former teammate.

Bryant was asked what would have happened if O'Neal had his work ethic. Bryant replied: “He’d be the greatest of all time."

"He’d be the first to tell you that," Bryant added. "I mean this guy was a force like I have never seen. I mean, it was crazy. A guy at that size…. Generally guys at that size are a little timid and they don’t want to be tall. They don’t want to be big. Man, this dude was… he did not care. He was mean. He was nasty. He was competitive. He was vindictive.

"I wish he was in the gym. I would have had f—ing 12 rings…. It wouldn’t even be close. ... Me and Shaq sit down all the time and I say ‘if your lazy a— was in shape.'”

The video clip, which is NSFW, surfaced earlier this week on the Instagram account Lakers24ever, which is where O'Neal responded with a comment of his own.

O'Neal wrote: "U woulda had twelve if you passed the ball more especially in the finals against the pistons #facts. ... You don't get statues by not working hard."

Bryant later tweeted: "Ain’t nothin but love there and we too old to beef anyway."

O'Neal then responded to Bryant's tweet, writing: "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."

Bryant and O'Neal became known for their "beef" when they played alongside each other from 1996-2004. The two earned three straight championships before O'Neal was traded to the Heat in 2004.

O'Neal finished his career with four titles (he won another with Miami in 2006), while Bryant had five to his name, securing two more with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.

Chelsea Howard