After the Los Angeles Lakers were crushed by the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 NBA Finals, the storied franchise was forced to make a tough decision between keeping an aging Shaquille O’Neal or building around a young Kobe Bryant.
It came as no surprise the Lakers chose to go the younger route sending Shaq to the Miami Heat in a blockbuster deal and eventually locking up Bryant long-term.
There’s no telling what the dynamic duo would’ve been able to accomplish if able to stay together, but Shaq believes they would’ve one a total of five or six rings. Charles Barkley asked Shaq on NBA on TNT some interesting questions on Thursday night about his time with Kobe in Los Angeles. Shaq said the following about what he and Kobe could’ve done with more time according to Kevin Ding of Bleacher Report:
Barkley is asking Shaq on @NBAonTNT how many total titles for Lakers if Kobe and Shaq stayed together beyond 2004. Shaq says five or six.
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) February 7, 2014
Many speculated that Bryant and O’Neal may have had a few more titles left in them before all hell broke loose after the 2004 Finals. Bryant was in his prime and Shaq still had some gas left in the tank.
Although Shaq went onto win a fourth and final title playing alongside Dwyane Wade in Miami, the future Hall of Famer could’ve stayed in Los Angeles a little longer. Many believe the tension between Kobe and Shaq hit a boiling point and that forced the two apart, but O’Neal was unwilling to take less to stay in Los Angeles according to Ding:
Shaq says it wasn't his relationship with Kobe that ended it, says he refused to take $20M/year instead of $30M/year from Lakers.
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) February 7, 2014
The debate about the potential of the Kobe-Shaq combo winning many more titles will continue to be hot topic whenever the legacy of the two players is talked about. Both players went on to be successful without the other, but as Ding says, the two simply wouldn’t have played together again after 2004:
What Shaq didn't mention is that if he hadn't been traded by the Lakers in 2004, Kobe was prepared to leave as a free agent anyway.
— KEVIN DING (@KevinDing) February 7, 2014
During their time together in Los Angeles, Kobe and Shaq were as dominant a combo there ever has been in the NBA. A short-lived run of dominance in the league in comparison to say Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in Chicago, Bill Russell and Bob Cousy in Boston or Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar during the Showtime era, but an unforgettable pairing nonetheless.
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