“Kobe Bryant Was the Best Player in the NBA at 22 Y/o”: Shaquille O’Neal Has High Praise for His Former Lakers Teammate

The Los Angeles Lakers became almost irrelevant after their 1989 Finals appearance, as the NBA saw the domination of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls. However, 1996 marked the arrival of a dynamic duo in the city of Angels, which would restore the power back to the West Coast. Jerry West orchestrated the 1996 Draft to acquire Kobe Bryant and signed Shaquille O’Neal from the Orlando Magic. After initial failures, the Shaq-Kobe duo became the defining force in the league. They won three championships together from 2000 to 2002. Years after their Lakers stint together, Shaq recently shared a post on Instagram that claimed that Kobe Bryant was the best player in the league at age 22.

After their first Championship win, Kobe wanted a change in play, demanding the ball to run through him. However, Shaq still wanted the ball to run through him. This changed the dynamic between the two in the 2001-02 season. After their third championship, the feud between the two got intense and resulted in a playoff loss to Spurs. Other factors also soured their relationship, which finally led to Shaq leaving for Miami in 2004

Shaquille O’Neal shares post saying Kobe Bryant was the best player in the league at 22

Shaq recently shared a post on his Instagram stories which showed Kobe’s stat line during the 2000-01 season. The stat line in the picture showed the Mamba with an average of 29.7 points in the season, which was also the highest in the league at that moment. In the 2000-01 season, Bryant ended up averaging 28.5 points per game. The caption of the post read, “Kobe was the best player in the NBA at 22 years old.” Shaq co-signed on the sentiment by sharing it on his stories.

This is not the first time that Shaq has agreed to the idea that his former teammate was the best player in the world. During the 2001-02 postseason, Mamba dropped 45 points against the San Antonio Spurs and 28 in the second game. After the game, Shaq told the press that his teammate was the best player in the world and it was easy to win with the best player on his side. Shaq was then the reigning league MVP and the Finals MVP. But he had no qualms accepting Kobe’s greatness.

Shaq supported Kobe even after he air-balled three go-to shots

Despite what the media and the publicity of the feud promoted, Shaq always maintained that he was proud of Bryant and wanted to mentor him. Who wouldn’t remember the infamous ‘airball’ game against the Utah Jazz in the playoffs? Mamba took three go-to shots in the game against the Jazz and all three airballed. Anybody would be discouraged to take those high-stake shots again. However, perhaps, those three shots gave birth to one of the greatest clutch shot-makers in the history league.

In his book, Shaq said that when everyone shied away from taking the final shot in the 97 Eastern Conference Semi Finals, an 18-year-old Mamba had the courage to shoot the ball. He wrote, 

“So it’s basically up to this eighteen-year-old. At eighteen years old, Kobe had the courage to take those shots. The Big Little Brother stepped up and did his best. No matter what happens, I was proud to be his teammate then, and I’m proud to be his teammate now.”

After Bryant died in the helicopter crash in 2020, Shaq was devastated. The Lakers legend now regularly shares posts like this one to promote the Mamba’s legacy.