No matter their record or status, the Los Angeles Lakers are consistently one of the most newsworthy teams in the NBA. From the sustained excellence of LeBron James or the drafting of his son Bronny, to the blockbuster Luka Dončić trade to the subsequent failed Mark Williams deal, they are constantly, inevitably in the news.
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No team in the league generates more clicks than the Lakers, but this current iteration still pales in comparison to the way those Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant teams used to get people’s attention. They had it all, from talent to drama to ridiculous storylines and scandals.
Shaq and Kobe won three straight titles together, but their pairing was never an easy one. The two constantly battled for control of the team, with Kobe eventually coming out on top when Shaq was traded to Miami in 2004. Before they split, and before they even won those championships, an incident from 1999 portended the way things would end up.
Fifteen-year NBA vet Olden Polynice stopped by Byron Scott’s Fast Break to talk hoops, and when asked for his best Kobe story, he didn’t disappoint.
“My ear still rings to this day. From me getting hit by a damn punch that was meant for Kobe!” Polynice said.
Polynice admitted to being a lifelong Lakers fan was hoping to make a good impression and get signed by the team as he reached the end of his playing career. He was practicing with a group of Lakers players during a pickup game in the 1998-99 NBA lockout when Kobe and Shaq went at it. The two stars started talking trash up and down the court and the situation escalated rapidly.
Polynice had known Kobe since he was seven, ever since the former played with Bryant’s dad in Italy. He felt protective when, after the trash talk had gone too far, O’Neal reached back to throw a Shaq-sized punch. “As I’m pushing Kobe out the way, the punch is like BOOM,” Polynice said as he mimicked it hitting him on the head.
Hitting the wrong guy didn’t slow Shaq down, and Polynice described how he continued to chase after Kobe. “So that’s when I grabbed Shaq. I just grab him, and I’m like, ‘Come on big fella,’ and I’m looking around like, ‘Can somebody help me?'”
Shaq’s size and strength allowed him to do pretty much whatever he wanted on a basketball court, so it’s easy to imagine how difficult it must have been to hold him back when he was this angry.
“The whole time, I swear to God, my ears are ringing like hell and I’m like ‘G****** that’s a big dude,'” Polynice laughed. He then shared that although he and Shaq see each other all the time, they’ve never spoken about the incident since it happened, and O’Neal has never apologized for it.
“They [Shaq and Kobe] can say whatever they want,” Polynice said, “but there was a hatred and a ‘I want to kill this man’ look in his eyes in that moment.”
Shaq and Kobe did eventually make up when Kobe appeared on the The Big Podcast with Shaq in 2015, and it was clear how much the two meant to each other when Shaq spoke at Kobe’s celebration of life after he tragically passed away in 2020. Years removed from the fight, Shaq and Kobe are remembered as one of the NBA’s best pairings for what they accomplished together.
