NATO AIR
Senior Member
kobe apparently "aired out" some of shaq's dirty laundry with women during his statements to police last year... wow, i can't wait to see these two hit the floor this season, shaq's gonna break him in half at the first word.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6134411/
Shaq angrily denies
Kobe's payoff allegations
Bryant reportedly told police O'Neal paid women $1 million to keep quiet about sex
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:08 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2004
Separating Kobe Bryant and Shaquille ONeal on different teams on different coasts has done nothing to lessen the animosity between the one-time Los Angeles Laker teammates. If anything, the feud is escalating.
On Wednesday, ONeal dismissed as ridiculous Bryants allegations that ONeal had paid up to $1 million in hush money to various women and then took his own shot by saying, Im not the one buying love.
ONeal made the remark over the telephone to a staffer at ESPN, the network said, after the Los Angeles Times quoted a police report as saying Bryant told detectives in Eagle, Colo., he should have done what Shaq does ... that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything and already had paid up to $1 million for situations like this.
The statement came near the end of a lengthy interrogation about a hotel employees complaint that Bryant had raped her.
The Times said it was unclear precisely what Bryant meant by his remarks.
Prosecutors dropped criminal charges against Bryant earlier this month at the accusers request, but the woman has filed a federal civil suit against him in Denver, seeking unspecified damages for pain and suffering since the case began.
ONeal was informed of Bryants allegation last September, and the relationship between the two was cool throughout the 2003-04 season. ONeal was subsequently traded to the Miami Heat.
This whole situation is ridiculous, ONeal told ESPN. I never hang out with Kobe, I never hung around him. In the seven or eight years we were together, we were never together. So how this guy can think he knows anything about me or my business is funny. And one last thing Im not the one buying love. Hes the one buying love.
ONeals latter comment was an apparent reference to a ring reportedly costing several million dollars that Bryant gave his wife, Vanessa, after he was charged with felony sexual assault last summer.
There have been no published reports of ONeal ever being accused of any sex crimes. He was charged with misdemeanor battery in Orange County, Fla., in 1998 after a 23-year-old Walt Disney World employee claimed he grabbed her neck, but the case was dismissed in 2000.
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.