O’Neal Calls Bryant a ‘Joke’ and a ‘Clown’

Another day brought more strong words from Shaquille O’Neal about former Laker teammate Kobe Bryant on Thursday.

“The guy’s a joke,” O’Neal told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel newspaper at a photo shoot in Miami. “I’m just trying to tell the world that the whole time, but just because he hits a couple of shots, everybody thinks he’s a great person. He’s a clown.”

The center, traded from the Lakers to the Miami Heat, raised the topic of Bryant. His comments represented a further response to a Los Angeles Times report Wednesday that an Eagle County, Colo., investigator wrote in a report that Bryant said O’Neal had paid women up to $1 million “not to say anything” after sexual encounters.

“Kobe, he gets caught by the police after doing what he did, and my name comes out,” O’Neal said. “... But, obviously, it shows what kind of character this guy has.”