Shaquille O'Neal may now have a Florida zip code but still the soap opera continues out West in Los Angeles.

According to T.J. Simers of the Los Angeles Times, two weeks before the Bryant radio interview that got Malone so heated the duo had a major falling out involving Bryant's wife.  Both Malone, speaking through agent Dwight Manley, and Bryant confirmed the rumor Saturday night according to Simers.

It is alleged that on November 23, the night the Lakers played the Bucks at Staples Center, Vanessa Bryant was talking on the phone to Malone's wife, Kaye. Kaye gave Vanessa her husband's cellphone number, and Vanessa called Malone, who was sitting at courtside and invited Malone's child to join her.

Malone, wearing cowboy boots and a hat, eventually took the child to Vanessa.

Malone hugged Vanessa, and then Vanessa asked ? as Manley recounts this part of the story ? "Hey, cowboy, what are you hunting?"

"She said it twice," Manley said, "and Karl answered the second time, 'I'm hunting for little Mexican girls.' "

Vanessa then later told Kobe that Malone had come on to her, and said several inappropriate things. She also told Bryant that she had called Malone's wife and asked Kaye to get her husband away from her.  This is when Kobe got mad, calling Malone and yelling while Malone was relatively silent, never denying the alligations.

Bryant, the article proclaims, preferred to keep the story out of the press but the New York Post reported this week that Malone was seen giving Vanessa a big hug, and then "somehow Malone managed to cross Vanessa" and got on her "frosty side."