The line ‘It’s better to burn out than to fade away’ originated in Neil Young’s song, My My, Hey Hey (Out of the Blue). Later, it was famously quoted in Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s suicide note. It’s also an apt descriptor for the Shaquille O’Neal-Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers.
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The Lakers were dominant, winning three straight NBA titles in the early 2000s, led by Shaq and Kobe Bryant. But they broke apart while both superstars were still at the height of their powers. There’s no telling how many rings Shaq and Kobe would have if they had just been able to squash their differences.
However, they both walked different paths, with Shaq getting traded to the Miami Heat in 2004. Each player still ended up with what most people would agree is a top-10 career, and each became champion again (Shaq in 2006 and Kobe in 2009 and 2010). One of the biggest NBA what-ifs of the past quarter-century, though, is what would have happened if Shaq and Kobe had stayed together.
However, Gary Vitti, the former head trainer for the Lakers, is not willing to blame just Shaq and Kobe for that dynasty falling apart. “A team is like a family,” he said on the most recent episode of Byron Scott’s Fast Break.
“And you may get mad at somebody in your family, you might get angry with your mom or your dad or your brother or sister. But you don’t stop loving them, and that’s the difference. In that era, we stopped loving each other, and when that happened, people started choosing sides,” added Vitti, who was fighting back tears as he recalled the way things fell apart.
“It’s easy to blame Kobe … This really bothers me, because we should have won 10 championships. It’s easy to blame Kobe, and it’s easy to blame Shaq. What about the rest of us? Including me. There [are] other players, there [are] management, there’s ownership, [and] coaches. People chose sides,” he added.
What Vitti is saying is that although Shaq and Kobe had issues with each other while tussling for control of the team, everyone else within the organization failed to do their part to help the situation. Once the battle lines were drawn, there was no going back. In the end, Shaq was traded away, and the Lakers family was left fractured.
Vitti credited former Lakers coach Pat Riley with creating that family mindset. Riley won four titles as head coach of the Showtime Lakers in the 1980s, and he later coached Shaq to his title with the Heat in 2006.
Riley once coined the phrase “the disease of more.” What it means is that when teams win, everyone starts wanting more. More credit, more money, more influence. While the things that helped that team win in the first place, like teamwork, unselfishness, and sacrifice, fall by the wayside, eventually causing even the greatest dynasties to fall.
Riley left the Lakers in 1990 and was long gone when Shaq and Kobe pulled off their three-peat (another phrase that he invented). Riley would have recognized how the disease of more broke that team apart, and, as Vitti pointed out, nobody stepped up to be the doctor the Lakers needed to treat or cure that disease.
Shaq and Kobe did eventually reconcile, though it was far too late to salvage their time with the Lakers. Nearly 20 years after their feud, Vitti still has regrets over what might have been.
