To succeed in the NBA, it takes a lot of hard work and dedication. Not everyone can easily enter the league in the first place. But even after making it to the league, only a few players can truly achieve the level of a superstar.
Is there anything harder than becoming the best player in the league? Well, how about doing that for a long period of time? One of the factors that separates the all-time NBA greats from players who have had a couple of good seasons is their longevity.
Over the years, the NBA has seen some players who have achieved this level. But even among them, Kobe Bryant truly displayed an outstanding level of longevity. His career spanned 20 years, and he played in three different decades.
Moreover, for most of his 20-year-old long career, Bryant was constantly one of the best players in the league. Although the last few years of his career were ruined due to injuries, playing 20 seasons still takes a lot of discipline.
Anyway, coming back to the topic, an NBA fan on Reddit recently posted a clip of Shaquille O’Neal against Stephen Curry. For some reason, many were shocked to see that Shaq and Curry had played against each other.
The comments section of the Reddit post featured some more bizarre facts about other NBA players. One of them was that Kobe Bryant had played against both Robert Parish and Karl-Anthony Towns. If you do not think that’s impressive, just take into account that there were 39 years of gap between Parish and KAT getting drafted into the league.
BetweenTheBuzzAndMe: Kobe Bryant has faced both Robert Parrish and Karl-Anthony Towns. Those two were drafted 39 years apart.
Miami-Vice-Nights: Kevin Garnett played against Magic Johnson and Devin Booker.
famouslastwords: Kareem Abdul Jabbar only barely missed out on playing with both Wilt and Shaq. He did, however, have the honor of playing with Bill Russell and Dan Majerle.
Dan-flashes: I don’t think I’ve ever seen a highlight but it cracks me up that Lebron played against Mark Jackson.
SF_FAITHFUL: Lebron and Shaq played more games together than KD and Kyrie.
RulersBack: Current day Shaq might be in better shape than he was here.
decamarks: dafuq i was wondering why shaq was on the warriors and curry on the cavs. Why are their jersey colours so inversed lmao. i didn’t even know cavs had blue jerseys.
Sharcbait: Chuck and Moses Malone holding Larry Bird while Dr. J punched him. They feel like several eras but nope they all played in the same game.
warriorer: Kevin Willis played against both Kareem and Paul Millsap; Robert Parrish played against both Kobe and John Havlicek. The 25 year gap between Kobe and Parish must surely be the biggest in league history for players on the same court.
olenikp: Also joe johnson vs mj. It will be our final link to MJ with his last game this year.
Ramzaa_: I always forget LeBron and Shaq were teammates. They never acknowledge it.
FalloutNano: This is a sad memory. Shaq used to be astronomically better than that.
These were some lesser-known facts about some of our favorite NBA stars. But still, the most surprising one remains the fact that Kobe played against both Parish and KAT in our book.
Additionally, it was surprising to see that not many fans were aware that LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal played together once. Although it was a forgettable stint for the two players, it is surprising that a lot of fans are unaware that this happened.
