Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal will square up tonight for the sixth time since the Lakers traded O’Neal to the Miami Heat four seasons ago. Bryant and O’Neal’s feud has been well-documented.
When did their animimosty toward one another begin?
Roland Lazenby recounts the beginning of the end in his book “The Show.” (I cite “The Show” often. If you haven’t purchased it, do so. Even if you dislike the Lakers, it’s a great look at the inner-workings of one of the league’s most storied franchises.)
The following excerpts were taken from “The Show”:
Since his days as a youngster battling his father one-on-one, Bryant had always been a physical practice player, the kind of guy to use elbows, hip checks, hard box-outs, or any other advantage to challenge opponents. His teammates didn’t approach the game the same way.
Derek Fisher: “That really was the way we all should have been competing. With Kobe’s spirit.”
It didn’t work out that way though. And the Lakers’ troubles in 1999 would begin with that January pickup session. More than five weeks later, word of the conflict would leak out to the newspapers, that Shaq had slapped Kobe during practice. The reports didn’t detail when the incident happened or what was involved, but it would be cited as a sign of their growing dislike for each other.
Fisher: “It had just been physical. Both guys had gotten tired. Neither guy really started it. It started just from them both being physical. Some true feelings came out. They didn’t really say all that much, but it was done in an extremely negative way. You could tell the guys had negative thoughts for each other. It was clear those feelings weren’t going away anytime soon. It would always be remembered.”
But when Phil Jackson arrived before the 1999-2000 season, he vowed to help mend the differences between Bryant and O’Neal.
“I’m going to stop some of the gossiping, stop some of the rumor-mongering among the personnel here,” Jackson said.
At the time, Jackson and his coaches didn’t realize just how deep a divide they faced. After the season, Winter would confide that he was shocked by the level of hatred O’Neal expressed for Bryant when the coaches first arrived on the scene.
Tex Winter: “There was a lot of hatred in his heart. He would speak his mind in our team meetings. He was saying some really hateful things. Kobe just took it and kept going.”
O’Neal’s main message to anyone who would listen was that the team could not win a championship with Bryant. It was an opinion that the center regularly expressed to management. Like West, though, the coaching staff saw Bryant as a Jordanlike player. His hands were smaller than Jordan’s, but the athletic ability, intelligence, the desire, were prodigious. What wasn’t clear was whether Bryant would grow to possess the Alpha male nature that made Jordan so dominant in his late 20s. Bryant was still so young, it was hard for coaches to see that. He certainly possessed the drive and work ethic.
But Jackson elected not to form a close relationship with Bryant. The coach reasoned that O’Neal’s nature craved such a relationship, and Jackson turned just about all his attention to O’Neal.
It’s hard to believe O’Neal’s recent contention that he and Bryant’s feud was “designed” by Phil Jackson. But O’Neal was probably being truthful when he said that Jackson never called Shaq and Kobe into his office to air their grievances. If such a meeting did exist, it’s not chronicled in Lazenby’s book.
For much of the healing between the center and guard, Jackson and Winter relied on their triangle. The main idea was that because the offense was so structured, it would make the relationship between O’Neal and Bryant smoother on the court.
It’s hard to argue with Jackson’s methods. But I’ve oftentimes wondered if a master communicator like Pat Riley would have been better suited to manage the Shaq-Kobe Lakers … at least off the court.
As a Lakers fan, it’s hard for me to let the Shaq-Kobe conflict go. From Shaq’s championship in Miami, to his off-season freestyle about Kobe, every season seems to add another chapter to one of the NBA’s greatest debates.
Shaq and Kobe should have been the greatest duo in NBA history. Their potential was limitless, but they let their egos and Alpha male personalities get in the way. If there’s anything to be gained by their feud, it’s that they have become the model for what not to do. Hopefully the next great duo avoids the pettiness and jealousy that poisoned their relationship. Despite the manner in which things ended, it’s still fun to look back at what was and what might have been.
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