Kobe Bryant’s family has asked soap opera Shaquille O’Neal to “reduce the amount of Kobe” in the upcoming film

Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal will soon be the main subject of a career-spanning documentary series called Shaq. While fans assumed that the late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant would play a fairly large role in the series, it appears that may not be the case.

The reason for this is that the Bryant family asked O’Neal and the rest of the creators behind the upcoming series to “reduce the amount” of Bryant in the project.

“I think there’s a really great deal of Kobe,” said director Robert Alexander. “There are two sides to it. One is, Chuck and I had a very honest conversation about Kobe not being with us anymore, and I felt like what he and Kobe went through was, in one way, what he felt personally… carrying their story. And how… used Both Shaq and Kobe media to form narratives. But Shaq made it clear to me, he’s like, ‘Kobe is no longer with us, and this is 20 years ago, and there’s a lot to not only our relationship but my experience as a basketball player, I want to make sure of that. has weight. And then as a filmmaker, it was also important for me to say, “I’m taking this as honestly as I can.”

He added that plans would have to change slightly at the request of the Bryant family.

“But to be transparent, we also got to a point where we had a certain amount of their story in the movie,” Alexander continued. “Kobe’s family basically asked that we reduce the amount of Kobe we have in the movie.”

When interviewer Rich Eisen asked why, Alexander explained that the team decided to honor the family’s wishes.

“I’m not entirely sure, but out of respect for their wishes we did, we went ahead and complied. … So I’m very proud of what we ended up with, in terms of the amount of Kobe content we have, which is about Shaq’s story, but at the end of the day it’s Shaq’s movie.”

As Lakers fans well know, O’Neal and Bryant enjoyed incredible success as Lakers teammates, winning three straight NBA championships from 2000 to 2002.

However, the power dynamic that occurred between the two stars also led to a lot of conflict both behind the scenes and in public. Ultimately, the dynamic between the players played a role in O’Neal being traded to the Miami Heat in 2004.

The relationship between the two has been strained at times, and O’Neal has been very open about the regrets he feels now that Bryant is gone. In fact, recently, O’Neal reflected on the subject by saying he should have contacted Bryant more.

“delay [getting in touch]O’Neal, 50, said People. “I will never see Kobe again, in real life, forever. And I just had to call. He should have called. We both should have called but he works, I work, so he’s ‘I’ll see you when I see you’.”

There is no doubt that the Bryant family has every right to demand that people treat the matter with respect. Sure, Alexander, O’Neal, and the rest of the Shaq team did everything they could to make sure they could tell the whole story without taking advantage of the situation.