Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal are one of the most iconic duos in sports history. Sharing the locker room for eight seasons, Kobe and Shaq co-led the Los Angeles Lakers to dominate some of the best teams in the league. During their stint as teammates, the All-Star pairing made four trips to the Finals, clinching a three-peat from 2000-2002. Unfortunately, due to their differences off the court, the front office had to trade O’Neal after the Purple & Gold’s 2004 NBA Finals loss. 11 years late to his departure, Shaq reflected upon the aura of an 18-year-old Bryant, during an interview with Graham Bensinger in 2015.
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Despite being one of the best teams in the league, there was a lot of friction between the Lakers’ two best players. Things were so bad that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal wouldn’t look eye-to-eye. Due to this, following the 2003-2004 season, Shaq was shipped off to Florida to the Miami Heat.
Shaquille O’Neal believes his duo with Kobe Bryant is the best one-two punch in NBA history
Shaquille O’Neal was an established superstar when he arrived in LA. Even though he didn’t win any Championships during his stint with the Orlando Magic, The Big Aristotle was regarded as one the best players in the league. On the other hand, during the 1996-1997 campaign, Kobe Bryant was an 18-year-old who was yet to prove his worth. According to the interview with Bensinger, Shaq stated how he had never seen an aura of any 18-year-old quite like the Black Mamba’s.
“He had an aura about him that I’ve never seen in an 18-year-old. The aura was kind of – either this kid is really cocky or he believes in it. And you saw is consistency of how he did it. So I knew one day that he’s going to be whatever he sets out to be. The only thing I had to figure out a way to how to get him to perform at a high level and I realized that we were the same people, don’t like criticism, turned it into motivation.”
“Superman” wasn’t wrong. As a teenager, Kobe made it to the All-Star Game in his second campaign. And by his fourth campaign, Bryant was already one of the best offensive maestros in the league. O’Neal further revealed that despite their differences, Kobe and he are the best one-two punch in the history of the game.
“Three out of four (championships). We will be the most talked about, the most enigmatic, the most controversial duo, the best one-two punch in the history of the game.”
By the end of their careers, the two called off their feud. Following Kobe’s tragic death, Shaq even had some kind words as a tribute to his younger brother.
Shaq narrated a hilarious anecdote
The Los Angeles Lakers had organized a tribute ceremony following Bryant’s sad demise. Shaq was among the many personalities who had a speech prepared. During his heartfelt speech, the Diesel narrated a hilarious interaction he had with Bryant in the past. Recollecting a memory with the Shooting Guard, O’Neal revealed confronting Bryant “Kobe, there’s no ‘I’ in the team.” As expected, Kobe had an iconic reply, “I know. But there’s an ‘M-E’ in that motherf**ker”.
