Kobe throws the rat on Shaq

[LakerMania]

http://nydailynews.com/front/story/236950p-203436c.html

Shaq shocker!

Kobe sez O'Neal paid women 1M hush money: report

BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER


Shaquille O'Neal (l.) and Kobe Bryant

Hours after Kobe Bryant was accused of rape, he reportedly told cops that his Los Angeles Lakers teammate Shaquille O'Neal had paid women up to $1 million to keep "situations like this" quiet.
Bryant's Shaq attack came July 2, 2003, in a conversation he had with Colorado cops soon after a 19-year-old hotel worker accused the star guard of assaulting her, the Los Angeles Times reported last night.

"Bryant made a comment to us about what another teammate does in situations like these," Eagle, Colo., Detective Doug Winters wrote in a police report obtained by the paper.

"Bryant stated he should have done what Shaq does. Bryant stated that Shaq would pay his women not to say anything. He stated Shaq has paid up to a million dollars already for situations like this."

Bryant, 26, also insisted he hadn't thought of a payoff because he treats women much better than his gargantuan teammate.

"He stated he, Bryant, treats a woman with respect, therefore they shouldn't say anything," Winters said.

Shaq found out about the dis last September when investigators for Eagle County prosecutors made an unsuccessful attempt to quiz him about the charge two weeks before the Lakers opened their training camp in Hawaii, the Times said.

Perry Rogers, O'Neal's agent, told the paper that Kobe's allegations against the big man were false and "undeserving of a response."

O'Neal, a 32-year-old All-Star center, is married with three children and has a fourth by an ex-girlfriend. He has never been accused of sexual impropriety.

A 23-year-old woman who worked at Walt Disney World in Orlando accused him of grabbing her neck in 1997, and he was charged with misdemeanor battery, but the case was dismissed in 2000.

Sports Illustrated had already reported the salacious details of Bryant's statement to police from a transcript of their conversation, including comments that other NBA players paid off women.

But the bombshell accusation against O'Neal came after the detectives turned off their tape recorder, and had been sealed during a pretrial hearing before the accuser backed out of the case and the charges were dropped.

The pair often butted egos in their years together on the Lakers, even as they won three championships.

O'Neal's agent said he didn't know whether O'Neal confronted Bryant over the comments last season, but said the remarks didn't stop Shaq from doing his job.

"It didn't have any impact on the relationship," Rogers told the Times, because "Shaquille had a very professional approach to his career there and because he has had an understanding of Kobe, Kobe's interests and Kobe's priorities. Kobe has historically been shown to be interested in one person and one person alone."

Originally published on September 29, 2004



This was a rumor that was floating around months ago. Most Laker fans assumed it was either Shaq or Rick Fox he was talking about. Adultery ain't that big of deal in my book, but damn Kobe! Why'd you have to rat on someone to make yourself look better? How embarrassing. :o

http://idisk.mac.com/illdesign/Public/KOBERAT.jpg


ehhh...what are you gonna do? I will still cheer for him. :D

[PhiSlammaJamma]

This is what happened when Heidi Fleiss went down. Everything went to hell.

[JumpMan]

If it smells like a rat...

[GRENDAL]

Your right LakerMania that is pretty embarrassing……











For Laker fans!

[adeelsiddiqui]

yep, just saw it, stupid kobe, shut up or put up....

[JiggajAMzZ]

how bout u shut up , kobe is the shiznit!

[adeelsiddiqui]

Originally posted by JiggajAMzZ
how bout u shut up , kobe is the shiznit!

troll, go to hell.

[JiggajAMzZ]

sorry buddy i aint going to hell cause I have Jesus CHRIST! 4 sho!

JOHN 3:16

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD , THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!


YAOOOOOOOOOOOOO MINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
:D

[shawn786]

OUCH i think big shaq daddy ant gona b happy about this 1

[Dr of Dunk]

I heard this this morning from some gossip columnist on the local R&B station. The only thing I could think was he broke "Player Rule #1" : don't snitch on each other and ruin reps. :D

[rrj_gamz]

To think Kobe was/is the only balla to do this is ridiculous...However, I guess Kobe should have someone to do damage control just in case...

[emjohn]

The amount of defamation of character "leaks" from this case is just staggering. Why couldn't the Jayson Williams case drop more stuff leak this?

One more reason to expect that flagrant foul Christmas present.

Evan

[nWo34Life]

The two bitches need to STFU and duke it out on the court (literally).

[RocketsPimp]

Guys, this is Kobe Bryant we're talking about. The guy has already proven he will say anything to cover his own ass and flat out lie to the public with the cameras turned on in order to run damage control. Maybe one of these days Kobe will learn to just shut his pie hole and be a man.

[DieHard Rocket]

Dec. 25 is going to be one of the most hyped regular season games of all time.

As if Kobe hadn't already lost everyone's respect, this just makes it worse. Kobe is one pathetic human being.

[JBIIRockets]

Originally posted by adeelsiddiqui
troll, go to hell.

That's not right.

[jo mama]

Originally posted by adeelsiddiqui
troll, go to hell.

you big meanie!

as far as the lakers go im torn...i love rudy, but i really hate kobe...

¨my wife...my endorsements¨ - kobe bryant to eagle county detectives after learning about rape allegations.

[foodworld]

So is LakerMania (resident Laker fan) siding with Shaq? If so can I ask why do the majority of Laker fans have a cult-like devotion to Bryant? Only a few I've seen were upset with swapping the team's MVP for seventy cents on the dollar. The team is in the worst shape it's been in since they drafted Eddie Jones, and Laker fans expect a championship... which tells me something.

I am a die-hard Celtics fan, but I wouldn't exactly be a Paul Pierce fan if he treated the Celtics organization in the same fashion, and I wouldn't root against players who were shipped out (i.e. Walker.)

[rhadamanthus]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_ylc=X3oDMTBpZmFlcXBpBF9TAzk1ODYxOTQ4BHNlYwN0aA--?slug=ap-lakers-heat-shaq-kobefeud&prov=ap&type=lgns

NEW YORK (AP) -- Separating Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal 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, O'Neal dismissed as ``ridiculous'' Bryant's allegations that O'Neal had paid up to $1 million in hush money to various women and then took his own shot by saying, ``I'm not the one buying love.''

O'Neal 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 employee's 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 accuser's 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.

O'Neal was informed of Bryant's allegation last September, and the relationship between the two was cool throughout the 2003-04 season. O'Neal was subsequently traded to the Miami Heat.

``This whole situation is ridiculous,'' O'Neal 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 -- I'm not the one buying love. He's the one buying love.''

O'Neal's 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 O'Neal 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.

[adeelsiddiqui]

Originally posted by JBIIRockets
That's not right.

he had been callling me an idiot all day, in about 3 threads for no reason, he deserved it.

[nyquil82]

classy, so is McDonald's going to re-sign him to a deal or what?

[m_cable]

Originally posted by nyquil82
classy, so is McDonald's going to re-sign him to a deal or what?

He lost his McDonald's deal. In fact, it was our boy Yao that picked it up. Yao is the worldwide spokesperson for Mcdonalds now.

[Uprising]

The LA vs Heat game is going to be entertaining.

[London'sBurning]

Atleast we know why Shaq is getting in shape so he can get a fat extension to his already enormous contract. :D

[m_cable]

Originally posted by London'sBurning
Atleast we know why Shaq is getting in shape so he can get a fat extension to his already enormous contract. :D

He want's 90 million. Damn. He'll be able to pay off women until he's dead.

[ayears]

http://idisk.mac.com/illdesign/Public/KOBERAT.jpg

hi LakerMania,

the image you photoshoped is more readable than the article itself, isn't it? :rolleyes:

[emjohn]

Originally posted by rhadamanthus
[url]
On Wednesday, O'Neal dismissed as ``ridiculous'' Bryant's allegations that O'Neal had paid up to $1 million in hush money to various women and then took his own shot by saying, ``I'm not the one buying love.''
Hadn't thought of it from this angle, but it's a good point:
What's worse - throwing a million at a woman for keeping the sex on the DL, or paying your wife not to divorce you with a $4 million ring?

We'll leave out all the money Kobe lost with his endorsements and the upcoming settlement (which may not be much, since the dirt Fuber & Co had on him has already been leaked).

Evan

[Another Brother]

Coulda been worse, he could have handled his women like OJ.:rolleyes:

[Lil Pun]

I'm not the one buying love.''



I think that sums it up right there. I know Kobe's wife looks good and all but I think she is nothing more than a money hungry whore.

[pgabriel]

Originally posted by emjohn
The amount of defamation of character "leaks" from this case is just staggering. Why couldn't the Jayson Williams case drop more stuff leak this?

One more reason to expect that flagrant foul Christmas present.

Evan

I'm not defending Kobe, but really how is he ratting out Shaq if he said this to the police in confidentiality.(is that a word?) It's not like the police were going to arrest Shaq or even mention this. Someone in Eagle County is very bitter and is going to try and make Kobe look as bad as possible.

[PhiSlammaJamma]

I don't know the truth, but if you had too pick a side, you have to pick Shaq's. Kobe was the one caught red handed. So if snybody is going to lying, it would be Kobe. I don't think the truth was free flowing that night.

[ayears]

Originally posted by Lil Pun
I think that sums it up right there. I know Kobe's wife looks good and all but I think she is nothing more than a money hungry whore.

A Q here guys, do you really think a man can buy true love?

I'm not the one buying love.''

[Interpretation]: I'm not the one buying sex.'' :rolleyes:

[MadMax]

Originally posted by JiggajAMzZ
sorry buddy i aint going to hell cause I have Jesus CHRIST! 4 sho!

JOHN 3:16

FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD , THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON, THAT WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM SHALL NOT PERISH BUT WILL HAVE ETERNAL LIFE!


YAOOOOOOOOOOOOO MINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG
:D

there's nothing quite as attractive as Christian smack-talk!!

"hell, yeah He came back, fools!!!!"

"suck on that, Judas!!!"

sweet. :rolleyes:

[MadMax]

Originally posted by pgabriel
I'm not defending Kobe, but really how is he ratting out Shaq if he said this to the police in confidentiality.(is that a word?) It's not like the police were going to arrest Shaq or even mention this. Someone in Eagle County is very bitter and is going to try and make Kobe look as bad as possible.

i agree. he didn't say this in a press interview. he said it in the midst of what was likely a very uncomfortable discussion with police officers. i don't imagine he was thinking of the P.R. ramifications of his comments, at the time.

[cwebbster]

Thats messed up, even if shaq did that, why would you rat him out. He did it to cover up for him, Kobe is such a little bitch

[m_cable]

I agree with pgabriel and MadMax. Kobe wasn't the one to go to the media about this. He was in huge trouble, and was talking to the police without his lawyer present. It's the guys that released this information that is stiring things up.

[MoonBus]

NEW YORK (AP) -- ...The statement came near the end of a lengthy interrogation about a hotel employee's complaint that Bryant had raped her.



BY MICHAEL McAULIFF
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

... But the bombshell accusation against O'Neal came after the detectives turned off their tape recorder, and had been sealed during a pretrial hearing before the accuser backed out of the case and the charges were dropped...

I don't doubt Kobe hates Shaq, but from what I've read here and through the transcripts of the interrogation, I highly doubt there was any malicious intent when he made those Shaq allegations.

Kobe made the statement AFTER the recorder was turned off. It was also made at the end of his first interrogation where it was apparent (from the transcript) that he did not want any of it to be out in the media.

Say what you will about Kobe, but the Rat label doesn't apply in this case.

For the record, I'm no Kobe fan.

[snowmt01]

He was more stupid than rat.