Shaquille O’Neal established himself as one of the greatest players to have ever stepped foot on NBA hardwood. ‘The Big Aristotle’ won most of his accolades alongside Kobe Bryant, winning 3 straight Finals MVPs and one of the most iconic regular season MVPs in 2000.
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By the time O’Neal retired after his 19th season in the league, it was clear that he had carved out a career worthy of placing him in the pantheon of NBA legends. The same goes for Kobe Bryant. Bryant is one of the most accomplished players to have ever played in the league.
Any list that doesn’t have Kobe in its top 10 when discussing who the greatest players of all time are is a list that should not be held in regard in the slightest. Well, Shaq seems to feel the same way as he posts an ‘official’ one on his social media and admits to disagreeing with it.
Shaquille O’Neal on Kobe Bryant missing out on the top 10
Shaquille O’Neal does this quite often on his social media. He takes graphics of either ‘GOAT’ pyramids or ‘top 10 all time’ lists and posts them on Instagram or Twitter and gives his opinion on the rankings before asking his followers what they think is the correct ranking for the players involved.
Most recently, he put up a ‘top 10 all-time’ list from the page ‘Playmaker’ that had a bevy of players in places that the general public would not agree with. However, the greatest omission from the list was undoubtedly Kobe Bryant as guys like Stephen Curry, who was placed at 3, and Kevin Durant made it over him.
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This riled up a lot of people in the comments who asked about where the ‘Black Mamba’ was. They would also heavily disagree with Curry being number 3 all time ahead of guys like Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson.
Shaq disagreed with it and claimed he was alright with his ranking (no. 5). He tried to ‘@’ the page that made the list but it seems as though the page has been deactivated.
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant would eventually bury the hatchet
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were nearly at war with one another towards the tail-end of their stay together in Los Angeles. Eventually, Shaq was forced out of the Lakers by Jerry Buss who would choose to keep the younger Bryant over him after losing to the Pistons in the ‘04 NBA Finals.
The two wanted to be the ‘alpha-dog’ on the purple and gold and neither wanted to submit to the other. Despite the feud that they had, they managed to win 3 championships. Fast-forward to present day and it’s been stated by O’Neal himself that he blew the feud out of proportion to keep his name in the news cycle.
The two would even sit down with one another in a highly televised event where they talked shop and broke down what they felt during their time together. After Kobe’s passing, Shaq revealed just how much it had affected him mentally, saying he lost his ‘little brother’.
