Shaq Remembers His Former Teammate and Friend Kobe Bryant | NBA on TNT

Shaktar, the first guy I thought of when I heard this news the other day, of course, I talked to you, Charles, and Kenny later that afternoon, but then I saw that you had received a text from Coby that morning. Shareef had received one, how? How have you been during the last 48 hours? Well, as you know, it's been the last few months. It has been very hard. I lost my little sister. I have been sleeping. I've been doing the normal things I usually do. I work, we laugh, we joke. I joke when I get home then I look at reality I say it's gone it just hurts so the other day I was downstairs exercising with my son do you mind? my nephew Columbus and my other nephew comes in crying and showed me his phone and I snapped at him, I told him when he got out of my face, leave it, you know, we live in a world where anything can be photoshopped, anything can be fooled, I didn't want to believe it and then I got a call from you.

Charles Kenny, everyone called me and then we found out it was confirmed and after having felt such acute pain at one time, 47 years - lost - grandma lost - Sarge lost my sister and now I lost a little brother, our names are people always asked about our relationship and I tell them it's like Charles and I had two determined people who would do it that way, we're going to say certain things, respect that should never be lost when it comes to being inside the lines and wind ice with me and I said we did it that's with me in Charles that's what we do it was like the triple triple stab in the heart because after you cried and wondered about it then I go back inside and that Rick Fox It's on the plane, so now I'm obviously staying longer.

I'm calling Rick he's not answering so now I'm wondering what's going on and then the final blow his lovely daughter was with them in the helicopter you know every time I saw his lovely wife in these kids I do the same thing with the kidneys kids Andy where are the kids hello my name is Uncle Chet I don't know if you know Mr. Single doesn't matter, I'm just Uncle Shack. I tried to make him laugh and he did the same. Shariff called me devastated. I told her that Kobe just texted me to see how she was doing and she used to do that from time to time.

Time, you know, makes me think that and in life, sometimes, instead of holding on to certain things, we should just do all this. We, up here, work a lot and I think we often take things for granted, like me. I don't talk to you as much as I need to about the fact that we're not going to be able to have Joe at his Hall of Fame ceremony when I'm going to be able to greet you, I have five, you have four. The fact that we won't be able to say if we would stay together is something we have to do.

Those are the things you can't get back with the loss of my father, but my sister and my baby, that's all I want. I could tell you something again. I thought he was talking when we were here and I'm fifty and he's sixty. It's a long time since I talked to him and I just wish I knew, so it definitely changes me. I have to do it. I don't work like you know what I do. I probably work harder than average, but now I really have to take the time to call and say: I love you.

Rick Fox finally called me. He said man. I like it. He will call me that. I'm going to try to do a better job just reaching out and talking to people instead of always procrastinating because you never know life was too short. I could never imagine anything like this. I was thinking the other day. I had never seen anything. So all the basketball idols that I grew up with, I stamped their old ones like I used to be at home when you reached inferiority. I used to watch the grand round and now I'm working with them.

I used to want to be dr. I used to live next door to my mom in Orlando. My father used to tell me about the three great men. I met him. I saw it in the fact that I lost. Probably the greatest Laker in the world. The biggest battle in the world. It's just that I listen to people. to say take your time and get better, but it's going to be hard for me, I don't sleep anymore anyway, so how did I know? My deepest condolences to his family, his mother, his father, his sisters, the other families, everyone involved, the Laker organization, I spoke. to Jeannie Atlanta and people here listened, especially in this organization, you know some people have to get treatment and people just don't understand because it hit all of us out of the blue.

I didn't want to believe it, I told myself, I hope. Someone, an idiot, made this up and it's not true. I didn't want to believe it and then I thought everything would come but the cause and finally you felt like you were worried and you just know that my spirit just left my body. I just wish. I could say one thing to the last thing to the people we lost because no one is going to go on forever and you know we should never take things like that for granted.