Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant won three championships together with the Los Angeles Lakers, but their relationship had become terrible by the time 2004 rolled around.
Shaquille O’Neal was famously traded to the Miami Heat where he joined budding superstar guard Dwyane Wade. And during an interview with Shannon Sharpe, Wade revealed Big Diesel’s main goal when he joined the team.
“There wasn’t any social media, I didn’t really know about the beef, right?” Wade said. “The internal beef that people talk about, I still don’t know. Shaq and I didn’t talk a lot about that, that wasn’t our relationship.”
When asked about what Shaq was like when he got to the Heat, Wade added, “He wanted another ring, it wasn’t no secret. ‘Kobe can’t get a ring before me.’ It wasn’t no secret in Miami. We all knew.
“I remember, we were 16 games into the new season. Miami Heat 10-6, we had a meeting led by Shaq. He went the f**k off because we had the same record as the Lakers. You know what we did, we went on a 12-game winning streak… He didn’t want to be on the same pace as the Lakers.”
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant tussled over who the main man was during their time with Los Angeles, so it stands to reason that O’Neal wanted to start winning immediately after he left the team. And he achieved his goal, too. The Miami Heat won the 2006 NBA championship, three years before the Lakers would win again.
Shaquille O’Neal’s First Season In Miami Is Quite Underrated
Shaquille O’Neal came to the Miami Heat with a passion to prove his greatness and, in his first year with the team, almost won the MVP. He lost out to Steve Nash, but he averaged 22.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 2.3 blocks per game that year, being named an All-Star and making it to the All-NBA First Team. The Heat wouldn’t win it all till the next season, so that year often gets forgotten by fans.
The rivalry with Kobe Bryant didn’t end after Shaquille O’Neal won his fourth championship though. Kobe would go on to win two more titles, and it made Shaq so mad that he destroyed his house after Bryant’s fifth ring. The two eventually made their peace before the Mamba’s untimely passing, but their greatness and their rivalry will never be forgotten by those that were around to witness the results.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQqjvCdQrFE
We sincerely appreciate and respect you as a reader of our site. It would help us a lot if you follow us on Google News because of the latest update.
Thanks for following us. We really appreciate your support.
