“What the Hell Is This?”: Shaquille O’Neal Along With Lakers Teammates Cornered Kobe Bryant for Being Selfish

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant may have been the greatest duo but their relationship was marred by a very public feud.

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant may just share one of the most complicated relationships in the NBA. Before Bryant’s death, O’Neal and Mamba solved much of their conflicts. They put their past to rest and became close to each other.
But before that, when O’Neal and Bryant played together for the Lakers, things weren’t so friendly between them. There was a time when Shaq and Bryant couldn’t see eye to eye. Their extremely public feud caused the fall of a possibly most successful dynasty.

In his book Shaq Uncut, Diesel discussed in detail a moment with Kobe Bryant that stood out in his career. Along with his Lakers teammates, Shaq cornered Kobe in a breach of protocol kinda meeting.

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Shaquille O’Neal and his teammates called out Kobe Bryant

Kobe was 21 when the meeting took place. Shaq and his teammates were frustrated by the young no. 8. They believed he was selfish. The nature of Bryant’s style of play did not sit too well with the gold and purple players.

So, the team called a players-only meeting. They went against Phil Jackson who hated the idea. The legendary coach even tried to stop the meeting from happening. But things spiraled downwards quickly.

The entire team ganged up against Kobe Bryant. Kobe tried reminding his teammates about their brotherhood. But the big man was having none of it. He felt annoyed by Bryant’s words. Though he later recalled Kobe being just 21. He acknowledged that Mamba’s age played a role in his responses.

In his book, Shaq wrote: “I was looking at him and wondering, What the hell is this? Maybe he was trying to fit in. After all, the kid was only twenty-one years old. But if he wanted to fit in, he should have taken off his headphones once in a while and tried to talk to us.”

Shaq refused to let Kobe affect his championship run

Shaquille O’Neal found Kobe’s action repulsive. He could not understand how the young guard could hamper the Lakers championship prospects.

O’Neal was ready to take the entire burden on his shoulders if need be. And that is exactly what he did. O’Neal went on a rampage for the next three years. The Lakers won three consecutive championships. Somewhere in between the duo found their chemistry and dominated the league.

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