Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal formed one of the most devastating duos that the league had ever seen during their time together on the Los Angeles Lakers. Both Kobe and Shaq joined the team in 1996, with O’Neal arriving as a free agent while the Lakers had agreed on a trade with the Hornets on draft night to acquire Bryant, in what has gone down as one of the greatest offseasons ever.
Success wouldn’t come right from the get-go, however, and in fact, the Lakers got swept out of the playoffs in 1998 as well as 1999, which led to them bringing in Phil Jackson as their head coach. Jackson had led the Bulls to 6 NBA titles and his arrival would be the turning point, as the Lakers soared under his leadership.
Kobe Bryant Explained How Phil Jackson Brilliantly Managed To Handle Him And Shaquille O’Neal
Under Jackson, Shaq would establish himself as arguably the best player in the game, while Kobe emerged as one of the best young superstars. Together the three of them would lead the Lakers to a historic three-peat from 2000 to 2002, a feat that only one other team has accomplished in the last 50-odd years, which was Michael Jordan’s Bulls. What makes this achievement by the Lakers even more impressive is that they did it despite the tensions that existed between Bryant and O’Neal, who had very different approaches to basketball. Fortunately for the Lakers, they had the best possible man to handle these two individuals with massive egos in Jackson, and Kobe once spoke about just how Jackson managed to do it.
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“He (Phil Jackson) would see the friction between myself and Shaquille and say ‘Okay how can I use that? I know Kobe has a passion to play so come hell or high water, doesn’t matter what’s going on in his personal life, doesn’t matter what’s happening here with the team, he’s gonna show up and perform no matter what. Shaq is more emotional, if something’s going on he won’t, so therefore I got to figure out how to create a wedge between myself and Kobe because then that brings me closer to Shaquille, and then that helps me better manage Shaq.’ So, that was his ability to manage the team, which was absolutely brilliant.”
That was a great tactic employed by Jackson there, as he understood how Kobe and Shaq would respond to certain situations. A troubled relationship was only going to last for so long though, as the breakup eventually happened in 2004, as relations completely broke down.
Bryant was at odds with both Shaq and Jackson, with both of them leaving the team in 2004, although Phil would return as head coach in 2005. The relationship between Kobe and Jackson would improve as time went by to the point they did get along well. His relationship with O’Neal would take a bit longer to improve but, fortunately, it did before his tragic passing.
