Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to three consecutive championships together. They were unstoppable in that era, and the only time they lost in the NBA Finals was in 2004 when the Detroit Pistons beat them. But by that time the relationship between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal had deteriorated to the point of no return. Brian Shaw recalled a particularly explosive incident.
“Well, that was, it was kind of every day,” Shaw said about Kobe and Shaq fighting. “Shaq is an alpha dog and Kobe was an alpha dog… “I had actually just retired. I was at home. And I get a call from Devin George first, and he said, ‘Hey Kobe said something about Shaq after the meeting after they told him not to say anything, and Shaq is pissed and he’s going to beat Kobe’s a** tomorrow.’
“And then I got a call from Phil Jackson saying the same thing. So I jumped on a plane… And as I pulled up to the players’ parking lot, Shaq was already waiting outside his car. He looked at me and he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ And I said, I’m here to talk to you and to Kobe.’ He said, ‘It ain’t nothing you gonna say that’s going to get in the way of this a**-whooping that Imma give him.
“I said, ‘Well, look, go inside, go in the film room and when he gets here, I’ll talk to him and bring him in.’ Kobe pulled up a little bit later, he said, ‘What are you doing here?’ I said, ‘Well, big fella is pissed off at you and what you said yesterday. I don’t want you to get blindsided, so I’ll tell you, he said he’s going to whoop your a**.’ And he said, ‘Oh I’m scared.’ And I said, ‘Nah, I think this you really should be scared. I haven’t seen him like this before.'”
(starts at 13:55 minutes)
This is a wild story. Even though physically fighting was nothing new to Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, it’s wild to think they were going this hard at it by the end. And Shaw’s way of dealing with it was a crazy one as well.
Brian Shaw Called In Karl Malone, Gary Payton, And Horace Grant To Help Control The Situation
For Brian Shaw, having to be responsible for a very angry Shaquille O’Neal must have been a wild feeling. In any case, he knew he couldn’t do it alone, so he called in reinforcements.
“Then I thought about it, and I was like, if Shaq tries to really go after Kobe, I can’t hold him back. So I got Karl Malone and I got Gary Payton and I got Horace Grant. And we all went into a room with Kobe and Shaq and they sat on opposite ends. And I was kind of the host of the show, I guess. And let them air out what their problems were with each other… When it was all said and done, it ended up being peaceful.”
These stories are crazy to hear years after they happened, and it shows how little NBA fans know about what goes on in locker rooms. The animosity between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal was at its peak then, but they eventually reconciled. How amazing would it have been to be a fly on the wall for that meeting, though!
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