The Lakers somehow managed to handle two alphas in Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant for 8 years, but the latter end of that period became toxic.
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When the Los Angeles Lakers acquired the 7’1 giant, Shaquille O’Neal, from Orlando Magic as a free agent in 1996, they expected immediate success with the group of veterans they had.
As they made The Diesel the highest-paid player in the history of the NBA with a 7-year $120 million contract, the return could only be Larry O’Brien.
“Win now” didn’t mean that building towards the future had to stop. The Lakers were also working on player development as they had brought in an 18-year-old sensation, Kobe Bryant.
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And as fate would have it, the Purple and Gold would not win any championship with O’Neal until Bryant started showing his own greatness. But thankfully that happened early.
If their three-peat didn’t start in 2000 it would’ve never been realized because both of them grew so intolerant of each other that they started throwing jabs at each other in front of the media.
How Kobe started making the Lakers his team despite Shaquille O’Neal leading them to 3 Championships
Ironically, the Lakers got the 13th pick of the famous 96’ Draft in exchange for Vlade Divac just because they wanted to make space for Shaq.
In return, they got a gem. What a lucky way to get your hands on who’d be arguably the biggest cornerstone of that franchise in the coming future. Isn’t it?
But everything great has another side to it. Is that a saying? Or am I a pessimist? Anyway, as Kobe started getting into his Mamba phase, like his idol MJ, he expected the same out of his other teammates as well, especially Shaq.
They reportedly started having little feuds even before they won their first championship in 2000, but it turned ugly after they did the three-peat and O’Neal swept all the three Finals MVPs while getting more out of shape each season, weighing around 340-pound.
Kobe Bryant publicly called out Shaq for his fitness
It broke all the limits after they finished the 2002-03 season outside the top-3 in the West for the first time in 4 years and got knocked out in the second round of the Playoffs after a 3-peat.
There was a regular public quarrel for whose team it was. Kobe didn’t think twice about calling out The Big Aristotle for his fitness in public.
“Since it is his team, no more coming into camp fat and out of shape.”
Kobe on the Lakers being Shaq’s team.
(via: @hulu) pic.twitter.com/NNBCcL2g3S
— Complex Sports (@ComplexSports) September 19, 2022
This led to another tumultuous season for the LA-based team, who had also added the future HOFs like Karl Malone and Gary Payton for what looked like their very own version of The Last Dance.
After the 2003-04 season ended with a Conference Finals loss, Shaq reportedly wanted the Lakers to choose between him and Kobe, and they decided to stick with the latter.
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And so, we were able to witness O’Neal doing his thing with Dwyane Wade and the Heat in 2006 and Bryant one-upping him a few years later by winning back-to-back chips in 2009 and 10 as well as his own Finals MVPs.
