“It Was Shaq’s Team”: Robert Horry Disputes Tyronn Lue’s Narrative on Kobe Bryant’s 1-on-1 Ritual

The story of the beef between LA Lakers stars Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant has been told and retold more times than, well, Harry Potter. On most days, it’s an entertaining tale of a young overachiever pushing out the old guard and taking over as the face of the franchise, leaving fans divided over which side to pick. On other days, it’s a series of cliches stitched together, often complemented by buzz words with ‘Mamba Mentality’. However, former Lakers star Robert Horry, who was there for the famous threepeat, tells it a bit differently.

It has been widely speculated that had Kobe and Shaq gotten along like the professionals they otherwise were, the Lakers would have gone on to win a dozen more titles. Unfortunately, that wasn’t to be as Shaq was traded off to the Miami Heat in July 2004, with the purple and the gold brand deciding to rebuild itself around Kobe.

NBA coach Tyronn Lue has reportedly claimed that Kobe had a one-on-one rule where he would take on any newcomer on the team, just to let them know that this was his territory. Kobe apparently wanted every single player, whether they were a role player or a star, to understand this. Horry, however, doesn’t remember any of this happening.

“Tyrron Lou must be getting paid … because I don’t remember any of this s***. He might have played Devin, he ain’t played no vets because vets don’t do that s***t,” Horry said, noting that there was never a case of any vet coming to the team and having to deal with his nonsense.

“Kobe always wanted to play 1 on 1 with people, but it wasn’t like it was a challenge or anything like ‘oh, this is my team,’ because we knew it wasn’t his team. It was Shaq’s team,” he asserted.  That said, Horry does concede that he would either get to practice early or, if that wasn’t the case, he would leave late.

So, perhaps there was a gap in time there somewhere that Kobe squeezed these 1 on 1 sessions in. But it does seem rather unlikely and more like a story made up to hype up his legacy; something that absolutely doesn’t need it.

“But I would like to say this, Kobe liked to play 1 on 1 with guys, but I don’t think it was like a challenge. I think it was just his competitive nature and he liked … He used to use you as a test dummy,” Horry added, noting that Bryant would do these competitions just to try out new stuff he wanted to work on. Now, that would be the real ‘Mamba mentality.’