When Shaquille O’Neal Compared His Feud with Kobe Bryant to The Beatles
When Shaquille O’Neal Compared His Relationship with Kobe Bryant to The Beatles
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant formed one of the best duos in NBA history, winning three consecutive championships with the Los Angeles Lakers. However, it was often reported that the results within the field were inversely proportional to the relationship they maintained outside the field.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal are Los Angeles Lakers legends, and the duo will forever be linked together after capturing three NBA championships together.
But, as it always goes, all good things must come to an end. Even Tom Morello and Zach De la Rosha, the two masterminds behind the genius of rap-rock outfit Rage Against The Machine, eventually split up.
It helps that some of the greatest players ever have spent time winning championships for the Lakers. Be it Wilt Chamberlain, Magic Johnson, Kobe Bryant, Jerry West the logo himself or any number of hall of famers the franchise has proudly featured.
And with superstar players, come superstar-clad teams. The "Showtime" Lakers were iconic, led by the Magic Man and The Captain Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. While some spend time arguing the greatest of all-time in all of the NBA, the debate for greatest Laker is a tough one on its own.
Shaq and Kobe played together for eight seasons between 1996 and 2004. O'Neal left the Los Angeles team after losing the 2004 Finals against the Detroit Pistons, Kobe remained in the Lakers until the end of his career, where he saw the its numbers 8 and 24 be withdrawn.
Despite their success together, they continued to win by following separate paths. Shaquille O'Neal won yet another championship alongside Dwyane Wade in the Miami Heat and Kobe Bryant formed a lethal duo with Pau Gasol in 2009 and 2010, winning two consecutive championships.
When it comes to picking the greatest Lakers duo ever, though, Shaquille O'Neal has no doubt about it. Kobe and Shaq were the greatest one-two punch to ever wear the purple and gold. Shaq was a celebrity guest for an episode of Oprah's Master Class and he had some very powerful words about his partnership with Kobe.
The episode shows Shaq discussing his relationship with Kobe, and listening to The Big Aristotle philosophize over it is fascinating.
“Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal, on the court, had a perfect relationship. Off the court, at times we bumped heads. It happens.” He said.
They both would work the media to get the angle they wanted out to the masses, according to O’Neal.
“The crazy thing about it is we would only go back at each other through the media. That's what a lot of people don't realize. Kobe's guy was Jim Gray... my guy was Jim Hill... it was always like little shots. 'Ah Shaq's not rebounding," ‘Well I'm not gonna rebound if you're taking all the shots.’ But in practice, we never had a problem,” Shaq said.
About their personal relationship, Shaq did the perfect analogy and mentioned the legendary English band The Beatles. According to him, their relationship was bit more like the The Beatles in how it functioned.
He said:
“One of my professors from Barry University, Doctor Kopp, he did his thesis on The Beatles, and I read it, and I never knew that John Lennon and Paul McCartney had problems. I never knew that. They bumped heads all the time, but guess what, they're one of the greatest acts of all-time.”
“Shaq and Kobe had problems, but guess what, we're the most dominant Lakers one-two punch, little guy-big man, ever, in the history of the Lakers, and that goes for Magic and Kareem also. No disrespect, it doesn't get more enigmatic, more eccentric than the relationship Kobe and I had.” he added.
The tension between the two eventually led to a split following a failed NBA Finals appearance against the Detroit Pistons. Even though both reconciled later on, Shaq acknowledged their partnership was far from perfect at time, drawing comparison to The Beatles.
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