“Nothing Could Stop Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant”: 6ft 9’ Nets Forward Was Distraught by Lakers Duo’s Dominance

The greatest one-two punch in the game of basketball, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers were something more than the NBA had ever witnessed.

There has not been a duo in the game’s history that was as dominant as the superstars of LA who were the face of the league at the turn of the century.

And while those hunters were on their run to make the league theirs, there were some hunted who must have wished they were not in the league at the time. But a former Nets forward was not one of them.

Also read: “I don’t like surprises”: Michael Jordan’s $2000 Gesture for Serena Williams In Australia, Took Her by Surprise

Kenyon Martin says there was no stopping Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant

One of the league’s most versatile players of the 2000s, who could get you easy buckets while also taking on the best player of the opposition team irrespective of the size of the player, Martin was a give it all guy.

K-Mart played in the league for 15 seasons and faced the likes of Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett, and LeBron James throughout his career and had a lot of success in guarding everyone in the league, but nobody dominated him as much as the Purple, and Gold duo.

He still remembers the 2002 NBA Finals series like it was yesterday not because it was his first NBA Finals at the mere age of 24, but because of the feeling he got when he saw Shaq dunking everyone on his team – “nothing could stop Shaq and Kobe”.

They would win three championships together before breaking up in 2004 after losing the Finals to the Detroit Pistons.

Why did Shaq and Kobe break up?

It was not the fact that they had lost the championship to a team without a real superstar, or that they lost in the Conference Finals before that year, it was the team environment.

LA couldn’t tolerate the back-and-forth between the league’s two top players anymore. That resulted in the Lakers offering Bryant to stay, which meant an exit for their 3x Finals MVP.

If not for their egos, Bryant and O’Neal would have won at least 8 championships together for as long as they played in the league. But the reality is always different.

Also read: “Shaq is Overrated? I’ll Punch You in the Face”: 325 lbs Shaquille O’Neal Reveals ‘Superpower’ in Upcoming HBO Documentary

About the author

Akash Murty

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

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