“Would’ve tried to work things with Shaquille O’Neal and keep him with the Lakers!”: When Kobe Bryant talked about how he would’ve handled the situation with Shaq before the Heat trade

Lakers legend Kobe Bryant once talked about how he wouldn’t have wanted Shaq to move from LA, instead would’ve worked things out

At the start of the millennia, the Los Angeles Lakers were on top of the NBA World. Their dynamic duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant was proving to be too much for everyone else. This resulted in them kicking off the 2000s with a three-peat. The two of them were terrorizing the league. To date, we haven’t seen a better duo than these two.

However, things weren’t all peachy in LA. Despite their dominance on the court, things weren’t so good off it. Shaq was the established star, and Kobe was coming into his own. Both of them wanted to be the leader of the team, and that often resulted in them butting heads.

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This led to a split in 2004, when the Lakers traded away Shaq to the Miami Heat. Kobe once talked about the same and described how he would have wanted things to go differently.

“Shaq did what’s best for him and his family”: Kobe Bryant

After Shaq’s move from LA, both Kobe and Shaq stumbled for a little bit before finding their way. Shaq won a title with Dwyane Wade and the Heat in 2006. Kobe went on to back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010 with Pau Gasol.

One day, Kobe was asked if he would have wanted things to go differently with Shaq. He replied and said,

“I would have [tried to work things out]. I think everybody would have probably said the same thing, but I don’t know with the intricacies… Shaq had to do what’s best for him and his family. He said so after the last game we played, this is a business and he’s gonna have to make the best decision for him and his family, and that’s what he did.”

Both Kobe and Shaq have described what happened between them as office beef a lot of times. Kobe once called himself a stupid kid for letting something like that destroy what they had in LA.

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If the duo hadn’t split up, they would have easily won 2-3 more championships for themselves and the Lakers.