Kobe Bryant

Shaq to Host Super Bowl Party, Donate Proceeds to Helicopter Crash Victims' Families

Shaquille O'Neal said he debated if he should even host the party, but decided his friend and “homie” Kobe Bryant would have wanted him to celebrate life.

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Shaquille O'Neal announced he will donate all the proceeds from his annual Super Bowl party to the Kobe and Vanessa Bryant Foundation and the families of those who died in Sunday's helicopter crash.

O’Neal posted a statement on Twitter, saying he’d been going back and forth on whether he should host his Super Bowl "Fun House" event, writing he wanted to stay with his family and reflect on his friend’s life but that was not what Bryant would have wanted.

“Kobe would want us to push through and celebrate life,” O’Neal wrote. “So lets do just that.”

He said they will celebrate “all those who lost their lives in Sundays tragedy” at the event and donate the proceeds.

“RIP my brother, my friend and my homie, The Black Mamba,” he said.

O’Neal broke down during a television special honoring his late friend and Los Angeles Lakers legend on Tuesday.

He said he plans to change the way he approaches life after losing Bryant too soon.

“It really changes me,” he said through tears. “I just really now have to take time and just call and say I love you … because you never know.”

Bryant and O’Neal played on the Los Angeles Lakers together from 1996-2004.

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