Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to the NBA’s last “three-peat” to begin the new millennium, but their infamous feuding was famous in the basketball world.
Teammates like Derek Fisher noted that the feud seemed to start following the Lakers’ first title 2020, stemming for Bryant feeling like he was sacrificing too much.
However, O’Neal was at the peak of his powers and was the most dominant force in the league so it made sense for Los Angeles to run the offense through him.
In an appearance on the “New Heights” podcast with Jason and Travis Kelce, O’Neal discussed how he used to push Bryant despite their working relationship deteriorating:
“My favorite stop will probably be L.A. because I had another guy with me that was just as crazy as I was. And a lot of people are like if you had all over to do it again to have a better relationship what would you do? The answer is nothing. I know I drove him crazy cause as a leader that’s what you do. I’m sure there’s a lot of guys on your football team that you know they’re really good but you know they can be a whole lot better, so you push ’em. You push their buttons. I used to tell him he wasn’t great. I don’t give a shit what they say about you, this is my f—ing team, I’m the man and you follow suit. And it used to drive him crazy. Used to drive him crazy. But I knew that…listen I know I got to average 30, 20, what are you gonna do, you little punk? And he was trying to always outdo me. So Phil developed a system. Go to f—ing Shaq early, get him involved. If he’s not hitting the free throws, Kobe it’s your show. And that system f—ing worked. And it worked and it worked and it worked, so all the problems y’all thought we had were not really lifestyle realistic problems. They were workplace big brother-little brother problems. Like I asked you Jason, but did you and Travis ever fight? And you told me one story, but I know there’s a million f—ing stories. But if you look at the outcome, both of y’all are great. I know you push your little brother Travis to be great, and I know he probably wanted to outdo you and beat you up and all that stuff but it causes greatness. When you’re a leader you either focus on the relationship or you focus on the task. I am focusing on the task and sometimes when you focus on the task the relationship may dwindle. My favorite documentaries are looking at these teams and like, ‘Holy shit, you thought the Bulls run was perfect?’ That was a great documentary in my life because you know what it made me feel like I was normal. The shit I was doing, Mike was doing the same shit. Whew, thank you Jordan.”
The public fighting between O’Neal and Bryant caught headlines throughout their time together, but the former seemed to want to emphasize that it was never personal between the two. Perhaps the greatest NBA what-if is what would have happened if O’Neal and Bryant stayed together, but fans will never know.
Shaquille O’Neal warns Giannis Antetokounmpo to avoid markets like Los Angeles
Giannis Antetokounmpo is reportedly mulling leaving the Milwaukee Bucks, but Lakers legend Shaquille O’Neal warned him to avoid big markets like Los Angeles when it comes to a possible trade request.
“I would tell him that, probably, a bigger market doesn’t matter,” Shaq said of his advice to Giannis. “Social media is the market now. Giannis has made a name for himself on social media. If you go to L.A., 50% of your contract goes to taxes, more pressure and more stress. Being that he’s in control of that ship, he should go upstairs and be like ‘I want to see all the free agents, I want phone numbers and I want to talk to them.’ He should bring people to him. When I was coming up, it was small market was too small, probably need to go to a big market. But now, every market is the same. Nobody cares what city you’re in, this ain’t the ’90s.”
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