It appears that Shaquille O'Neal had a pretty good reason to curl his lip at Kobe Bryant last season. Thursday's L.A. Times reported that when Bryant spoke to Colorado police investigating his infamous hotel hookup-gone-bad, he told the detectives he should have bought off the woman—like Shaq does. A detective wrote in his report:

"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. He stated he, Bryant, treats a woman with respect, therefore they shouldn't say anything."

The cops paid a call on Shaq to check it out two weeks before training camp last summer, pretty much killing off that relationship. (Shaq's agent called Bryant's accusation "undeserving of a response.") After Shaq fired back at Bryant today, MSNBC columnist Michael Ventre wrote:

These two really, truly hate each other.

In fact, Kobe and Shaq may go down in history as the two biggest enemies ever in sports. Can you think of two people in sports who have exposed their personal animosity toward each other to such a public degree?

Kinda wonder what Kobe's other Lakers teammates think of him these days.