“Kobe Bryant and Shaq are b**ching and complaining everyday”: Dennis Rodman goes off on his short-lived stint with the Lakers and why he needed to go to Las Vegas

Dennis doesn’t hold back when talking about playing with Kobe Bryant and Shaq, claiming the two would constantly argue with one another. 

Phil Jackson being let go as head coach of the Chicago Bulls in the summer of ‘98 led to a domino effect throughout the franchise, resulting in their big 3 of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman all being rendered inactive by the team. 

Jordan retired for the second time, Pippen soon found himself on the Houston Rockets, and Dennis Rodman was somehow on a budding Los Angeles Lakers squad, ripe with young talent. 

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Well, that young talent was mainly Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who were very much in control of a team littered with solid veterans. Rodman only played 23 games for the purple and gold during the 1998-99 NBA season and details for why this was the case during the lockout season are being revealed by Rodman himself. 

It’s safe to say that he didn’t mesh well with any of his teammates on the Lakers as 10 games into the season, he claims to have wanted to get away from it all and make his return to the Las Vegas scene. 

Dennis Rodman on playing with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. 

In a recent interview, Dennis Rodman detailed his experiences playing on the Los Angeles Lakers with Shaq and Kobe. Here, he talks about how the dynamic duo was ‘envious’ of him due to the way he was catered to by the Lakers personnel. 

“Every day, they’re b**ching and b**ching and complaining, Kobe and Shaq, and they just b**ching about everything. So, I just said I got to take a damn break. I’m not used to this man. In Chicago, we never did this sh*t. If we got mad, we got mad at ourselves.” 

 

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The above quote is Dennis Rodman talking about how he couldn’t stand being around Kobe and Shaq as the latter two quarreled with one another. Now, this must have some truth to it as tensions between the two Laker goliaths began to surface from around this season. 

However, to say that the Lakers ‘catered’ to him rather than the Lakers ‘put up’ with him is definitely a poor retelling of what took place. His off court antics and poor on-court production led to him being cut in April of that season.