“You might be Kobe Bryant, but I’m the Shaq!” : Shaquille O’Neal speaks out on how he would provoke the Black Mamba

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant formed arguably the greatest one-two punch in NBA history.

The duo ran riot in the west and formed one heck of a successful tandem. The last three-peat in NBA history is telling enough of their time together.

The Los Angeles Lakers thrived at the top of the West while the duo played in La La Land. However, all things were not always rosy. The duo had multiple fall-outs which eventually drove Shaq out of town.

Also read: WATCH: Kobe Bryant passes up an easy layup to get Shaquille O’Neal to 61 points, Shaq returns the favor

While they won too, the duo was never necessarily on the same page. It was just that the two were such incredible individual talents that they thrived regardless.

Two alphas playing together hasn’t really worked for a lot of teams. But then again, not a lot of them had the Zenmaster, Phil Jackson, coaching them either.

Despite all the man management and politics, Shaq still managed to get under Kobe‘s skin. Youthfulness can be a dangerous thing too.

How did Shaquille O’Neal provoke Kobe Bryant during their Laker days?

With the duo, a primary point of the debate came easy – who’s team was the Lakers?

And the more established, older Shaq used that to draw the ire of his “Robin”. In an interview, Shaq admitted that things weren’t always smooth between the duo. And even when things were, Big Diesel provoking Kobe was commonplace.

Safe to assume 6’6 Kobe Bryant was definitely not used to being called “Little Man”. Everyone is a minnow for Superman, I guess.

Shaq was the MVP of the league and in the conversation for the most dominant force of all time as a Laker. Few players could go against Kobe and come out as a winner at the time. Shaq clearly was one of them.

With Kobe growing into his own, he wouldn’t have taken the “Little man” talk from Shaq who claimed it was his team. “You may be Kobe, but I am the Shaq” as eloquently put by the big man.

The Lakers committed to Kobe. We know what happened next.

Also read: Kobe Bryant, who copied Michael Jordan for 20 years, claims his 4 airballs felt good in Lakers