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. ehhh...what are you gonna do? I will still cheer for him.
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
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.
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...
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
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.
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.
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.
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.)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/news;_y...p-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.
