Kobe Bryant Says He Didn’t Appreciate Shaq Until He Played With Dwight Howard

Kobe Bryant Says He Didn’t Appreciate Shaq Until He Played With Dwight Howard

Kobe Bryant‘s retirement appears to be going splendidly, judging by his hilarious prank of a poor aesthetician on Ellen this week, and he’s continuing his post-NBA press run with an appearance on former teammate (and foe) Shaquille O’Neal‘s podcast, which will be released to the masses on Monday.

Apparently, during the conversation, Kobe dropped a pretty hilarious tidbit comparing arguably the two most dominant big men he played with, Shaq and Dwight Howard, whose careers have followed strikingly similar paths (aside from the fact that Howard is ringless). Both centers left awkward situations in Orlando to join Kobe in Los Angeles, but Shaq and Kobe won three consecutive titles during their time together. Dwight Howard found himself a new team (Houston) after one season, and has struggled to regain his…well…magic.

Today, Kobe admitted that it wasn’t until his brief time with Dwight Howard that he began to stop taking his time with O’Neal for granted.


“I didn’t appreciate Shaq until I played with Dwight”- Kobe Bryant on the Shaq Podcast. pic.twitter.com/yONHZMjKiQ — Per Sources Sports (@PerSources14) August 27, 2015

Can’t believe we’re saying this, but we can’t wait until Monday.