Shaq somehow had no idea Kobe Bryant wrote a poem to announce his retirement
Shaq made a guest appearance on Monday’s episode of Late Night with Seth Meyers, and with Kobe Bryant’s impending retirement being the constant topic of discussion, Meyers had to ask Shaq for his thoughts. Ultimately, Shaq isn’t surprised about Kobe retiring, since the latter’s been playing for 20 years. What did surprise Shaq was that Kobe wrote a poem about retiring.
Meyers: “He made his announcement -- he wrote a poem. That’s how he did it, he published a poem ... ”
Shaq: “No, he didn’t.”
Meyers: “What?”
Shaq: “He did?”
Meyers: “Yeah.”
Shaq: “Hold on, like ‘roses are red, violets are blue’ type thing?”
Meyers: “Pretty close!”
Shaq: “No way, no way.”
Meyers: “So you’ve never considered a poem for yourself when you--”
Shaq: “No, never. Never.”
Meyers: “Did you consider a rap?”
Shaq: “No. No raps, no movies. A poem, seriously?”
Like Meyers said, it’s a pretty nice poem. Shaq went on to discuss retirement itself, specifically handling one’s money in a responsible way. Shaq confirmed that he spent a million dollars in 45 minutes when he signed his first contract, thinking that the million is exactly a million, and using the money to buy his family expensive cars. At the time, he didn’t know that the money gets taxed by FICA, who is apparently Shaq’s mortal enemy.
Therefore, Shaq had less money than he thought when he bought those cars. He’s gotten a lot better at handling his money, though. Here’s hoping FICA’s the main villain in the Shaq-Fu remake.
