John Salley on Shaq giving a girl "per diem" to go away
John Salley-Shaq- per diem
Women chased Dennis Rodman. Allen Iverson and his 10-men posse made sure they were the ones doing the chasing. But it's no secret girls were throwing themselves at Shaquille O'Neal -- especially during his prime years in LA. How did O'Neal handle it?
"Hush money" incident
Back in 2004, right after the Lakers decided to keep Kobe over Shaq to put an end to their feud, Bryant accused O'Neal of paying "up to $1 million in hush money to various women" to prevent them from speaking about his extramarital affairs. Shaq himself denied those allegations.
"This whole situation is ridiculous," O'Neal told ESPN. "I never hang out with Kobe, I never hung around him. In the seven or eight years we were together, we were never together. So how this guy can think he knows anything about me or my business is funny. And one last thing -- I'm not the one buying love. He's the one buying love."
Shaq paid women to go away
Kobe's remarks were made during a police interrogation regarding the Colorado incident. By then, O'Neal was in Miami, playing alongside blossoming sophomore Dwyane Wade, preparing to have another run at an NBA championship.
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The "Hush Money" reports haven't been addressed publicly since, neither by Kobe nor Shaq. However, a former teammate of theirs, John Salley, did touch upon it during his interview with DJ Vlad. According to him, O'Neal never paid the girls "hush money." If anything, it was the "get away from me" money.
"I'm playing for the Lakers and they give us, like, per diem [of] $930," he said. "The still gotta give Shaq one. Shaq has not cashed any of his NBA checks 'til this day. So they're gonna give Shaq an envelope with $930. Guy makes $300,000 per game at this time."
"So this girl was talking, 'I'm now doing 'Best AM Sports Show,' I had Shaq on one time, I kicked it with Shaq." At that point, everyone around here went quiet. But Salley knew. "I was like, 'oh, you kicked it with Shaq?' he asked. "Yeah, I'll tell you right now, boom, came up to me, he ain't give me a G, but he was like, 'here ya go, $900, go shopping.'"
B*tch he gave you his per diem. I think it was this stripper chick bragging about she got a grand. No, you got $930. He cares nothing about it.
John Salley, djvlad
It turns out, Shaq wasn't paying women to keep quiet. He was paying them to leave him alone. And on this instance, the Lakersper diem did the trick.
