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Shaq: "I Believe Kobe 100 Percent"Kobe Bryant was furious with the Lakers after reading that a "team source" intimated in Tuesday's Los Angeles Times that he was the reason Shaquille O'Neal was traded. The Lakers' owner, Jerry Buss, "called a meeting with me after he spoke with Jim Gray [of ESPN] to talk with him about Shaq's future in the middle of the 2004 season," Bryant said yesterday. "He met with me at the Four Seasons Hotel here across from Fashion Island, which is now the Island Hotel," Bryant said. "I went up to his penthouse suite. [Buss] looks me dead in the face and says: 'Kobe, I am not going to re-sign Shaq. I am not about to pay him $30 million a year or $80 million over three years. No way in hell. I feel like he's getting older. His body is breaking down, and I don't want to pay that money to him when I can get value for him right now rather than wait. This is my decision. It's independent of you. My mind is made up. It doesn't matter to me what you do in free agency because I do not want to pay [Shaq], period.' " "Dr. Buss said that," Bryant said. "And I haven't said anything for years because I've always felt like folks were just looking to create controversy. Now I know. I realize what extent [the Lakers] will go to, to cover themselves." "I believe Kobe 100 percent," said O'Neal, reached yesterday while in Los Angeles on business. "Absolutely. There's no doubt in my mind Kobe is telling the truth. I believe him a thousand percent. I would have respected Dr. Buss more as a man if he would have told me that himself, because I know he said it. But he didn't [tell me]. He never said a damn word to me." Miami Heat, Los Angeles Lakers Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Shaq Is 'Sure' Riley Will Return As CoachThough Shaquille O'Neal has been given no assurances and Pat Riley remains noncommittal publicly, O'Neal said he feels ''sure'' Riley will coach next season and that ''it's important'' Riley do so. O'Neal said Riley told players after the season that he ''will be here for the next five years'' -- though Riley, 62, didn't specify whether it would be as coach, president or both titles. Shaq also said none of the conference finalists is better than the Heat. ``Cleveland was in the right bracket. This year was a bad-luck year.'' Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets D-Wade Becomes Father For Second Time
The couple's second son, Zion Malachi Airamis Wade, was born at 9:45 p.m. at a Chicago hospital, weighing 6 pounds, 11 ounces. He joins older brother Zaire, 5, in the Wade household. "We are very excited and blessed to welcome our second child into the world," Wade said on his Web site. "We are really happy and everyone is healthy." Read the Full Story Discuss Send Feedback Buy Tickets Heat May 2007 Archive
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Dwyane Wade of the Heat and his wife, Siohvaughn, became parents Tuesday for the second time.