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Kobe Bryant's message to live life 0:14
(CNN) - Shaquille O'Neal said on Tuesday that when the news about Kobe Bryant's death began arriving on social media, he didn't want to believe it.
Then he received an avalanche of calls from friends and there was confirmation.
"I have not felt such acute pain in a long time," he said in the tribute "Remembering Kobe" of TNT. "I lost a younger brother."
Shaquille O'Neal during the tribute to Kobe Bryant.
The tribute was broadcast from the Staples Center, where the game between the Los Angeles Lakers, a team in which Bryant played his entire career in the NBA, and the Los Angeles Clippers had been postponed.
The TNT NBA study team sat on a dark sand with Bryant's two numbers removed on the rafters.
O'Neal said that although he and Bryant were two strong-minded individuals and certain things were said, they never lost respect for each other.
O'Neal cried as he regretted not being able to joke with Bryant about the titles they won (Bryant was five; O'Neal four) or how many would have won if they had stayed as teammates. He wished he could be there to laugh with Bryant when the guard enters the Hall of Fame, he said.
"I wish I could tell you something again," O'Neal said.
O'Neal said Bryant's death made him reflect on working too hard and not getting close to the people he loved, including his colleagues.
He said that with Kobe's death, the world lost the best Laker and the best player.
Jerry West: Kobe always had the mentality of Mamba
Bryant arrived at the Lakers through a cunning move by then general manager Jerry West.
Bryant was only 17 years old and it wasn't the time when the NBA teams went after the high school stars.
Bryant's agent organized a training with his client and some of the best prospects in the draft.
But when training began, it wasn't long before he highlighted Bryant's talent and mentality.
“I said to myself, 'This is ridiculous. These (other) children don't even belong here, ”West said Tuesday night.
West said Bryant, who highlighted his "Mamba Mentality" during his multi-rewarded NBA career, always had the attitude of killer instinct. Even at 17 years old.
West, a Hall of Fame player, said he courted O'Neal to go to the Lakers as a free agent by telling him he had great players on his team.
And on draft day, West changed his top center to Bryant, chosen by the Charlotte Hornets, and so he already had a future superstar.
He told O'Neal "we have one that will be the best player in the league someday," he said.
West told TNT that his relationship with Bryant was one in which they had many intimate conversations and that he came to feel that he was a father figure to the player.
Bryant was always looking for information and trying to improve, West said.
“There were so many things we talked about,” said West. "I don't know if I can ever get over this."
Other legends reflect on Kobe's death
Dwyane Wade described how he came to the league wanting the respect of a person. It occurred in 2008 before an Olympic practice when a coach faced the two players in an exercise in which each tried to maintain a flexion position longer than the other.
Wade did well, maintained his position for longer than ever and said Bryant said: "You're the same as me" when it comes to being competitive.
Kenny Smith said Bryant was as aggressive as a father as he was as a player. Smith said he admired the way Bryant transitioned as a full-time father.
The almost always talkative Charles Barkley said he had to wait before speaking publicly about Bryant's death.
He had been in a movie and when his cell phone came out he had many text messages and missed calls. He clicked on CNN.
"And I started to cry," he said. Barkley commented that Bryant was like one of his children even though they didn't interact for a long time every time they saw each other.
Kevin Dotson of CNN contributed to this report.
Kobe Bryant
