It’s been a crazy couple of weeks. Heck, most of 2020 has been insane. Still, there are some nice touches to life happening, and here at ShaqFu Radio, we’d like to bring this one to your attention.
We all remember the tragic death of Kobe Bryant back in January. Virtually everyone who knew him – and even some who didn’t – shared memories and thoughts of Kobe. Of course Shaquile O’Neal was one of those taking a lead role in memorializing Kobe, and his son Shareef has been a part of that, too.
Even as Shaq and Kobe sometimes had a challenge or two with the relationship between them, they both had feelings for each others’ kids. Shareef O’Neal maintained a strong relationship with Bryant after Kobe’s retirement in 2016. Shaq says his son and Kobe texted and chatted fairly frequently.
In fact, the morning of Kobe’s death in that helicopter crash, Bryant reached out to Shareef via text to talk about the young man’s college plans. Kobe’s text to Shareef was very likely his last communication before the crash that took his and daughter Gianna, along with several others.
This past weekend, Shareef was back on social media with a new tribute to his and his fathers’ friend. On Instagram, Shareef posted a picture of himself wearing the famous “three-peat” jacket that Bryant wore after defeating the New Jersey Nets to win the 2002 NBA Championship Finals.
Shaq and the rest of the Lakers team was presented with those jackets, and the one Shareef wore was probably his fathers. But if there was any doubt about the intended message, Shareef made it clear with another picture post – that of Kobe wearing the same jacket after the 2002 Finals win.
In an interview with TMZ, Shareef talked about the relationship he enjoyed with Kobe, his father’s former teammate.
“He just told me to always be the best I can be. Always try hard and always try to work harder than everyone else ’cause every day you take off, there’s always people trying to get better. So, he just told me to be the best I can be, I don’t have to live up to my dad’s name. I don’t have to live up to anybody’s name. Be the best I can be.”
Around the same time as the helicopter crash, Shareef was in the process of transferring from UCLA to LSU, where he father was such a powerhouse player nearly three decades earlier.
