CASPER
New member
LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Shaquille O'Neal has set aside past rivalries and is hopeful that former teammate Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers can defeat Orlando in the National Basketball Association Finals.
O'Neal and Bryant won three NBA crowns together with the Lakers from 2000 through 2002 but a spat between them led "Shaq" to leave for the Miami Heat, with whom he won an NBA title in 2006 before leaving to join the Phoenix Suns.
Now Bryant is on the verge of claiming his first title without big man O'Neal as a teammate.
"That's right I am saying it today and today only - I want Kobe Bryant to get number four," O'Neal said in an internet posting on Wednesday to his Twitter account.
The best-of-seven championship series begins on Thursday at Los Angeles and matches two teams that O'Neal guided into the NBA Finals.
Orlando, with O'Neal at center, was swept by Houston in the 1995 NBA Finals and one year later, "Shaq" departed for a huge deal with the Lakers.
O'Neal and Bryant won three NBA crowns together with the Lakers from 2000 through 2002 but a spat between them led "Shaq" to leave for the Miami Heat, with whom he won an NBA title in 2006 before leaving to join the Phoenix Suns.
Now Bryant is on the verge of claiming his first title without big man O'Neal as a teammate.
"That's right I am saying it today and today only - I want Kobe Bryant to get number four," O'Neal said in an internet posting on Wednesday to his Twitter account.
The best-of-seven championship series begins on Thursday at Los Angeles and matches two teams that O'Neal guided into the NBA Finals.
Orlando, with O'Neal at center, was swept by Houston in the 1995 NBA Finals and one year later, "Shaq" departed for a huge deal with the Lakers.