Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, who won three straight NBA championships with the Los Angeles Lakers, had personal issues and disagreements about their respective roles on the team.
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Over the course of their eight seasons together with the Los Angeles Lakers, the pair combined for four NBA Finals appearances and three championships, but it was their tense off-court dynamic that captured many fans’ attention. A recent admission from The Diesel raises questions about how poor the connection was.
When the Lakers traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat in 2004 for three players and two draft choices, the collaboration ended. When the Heat won the championship in 2006, Shaq had the first chuckle and now had an advantage of 4-3 rings.
However, Bryant ultimately had the advantage thanks to his back-to-back championships with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010. Along the way, there was a lot of trash talking in both directions, but O’Neal reportedly admitted the animosity was really for show.
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were without a doubt one of the NBA’s best tandems and one of the finest duos in history. They had irreconcilable differences, making the Lakers organization choose to trade O’Neal away.
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Shaquille O’Neal claims that his feud with Kobe Bryant occurred, but that they resolved their issues
With Phil Jackson at the helm, the Lakers quickly became a dynasty that bridged the 20th and 21st centuries. From 2000 to 2002, Los Angeles won three consecutive championships. After losing in the second round to the Spurs in 2003, the Lakers returned to the NBA Finals in 2004. However, the star-studded team was defeated in five games by the Pistons in 2004. The festivities came to an end with the trade of O’Neal.
There were signs that the feud was real. Dennis Rodman was a Laker for a short time in 1999. The Worm reportedly became so agitated by the squabbling between the team’s two young stars that he quit and went on vacation in Vegas.
Given how the players later reunited, O’Neal’s latest disclosure isn’t quite as stunning. Maybe it’s because the beef was all along turkey.
During a recent visit to the Full Send Podcast, Shaquille O’Neal revealed the truth behind his famed feud with Kobe Bryant.
“I kept it going outside the locker room because marketing was the only thing I knew.” So I said, ‘I don’t like him, and he doesn’t like me,’ and everyone gossiped about us. That’s all I’m looking for. It got so far that people started believing it. Do you think we’ll win three out of four if you believe it? ”
Shaq told Kobe in a candid one-on-one interview that it was at the All-Star Game that he understood how harsh he had been on Bryant over the years. He later expressed sorrow for not remaining in Los Angeles to conclude his career with Bryant.
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