Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal can lay claim to the title of the greatest duo of all time. The two players combined during their 8-year stint with the Los Angeles Lakers, and utterly dominated the league.
Together, Kobe and Shaq went to 4 NBA Finals, won 3 consecutive NBA championships, and established the 2000s Lakers as one of the great dynasties in the league.
Even several years after their time together, there hasn’t been a duo that has come close to matching the dominance that Shaq and Kobe had together during the peak of their reign.
But there are a lot of players that have garnered comparisons to Kobe and Shaq as individual players respectively. Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo have been compared to Shaq regularly, a comparison that Shaq himself has given his approval of.
As for Kobe, players like Devin Booker and Jayson Tatum have been compared to Kobe a lot, because of how similar their styles of play are. But Shaq doesn’t think there is any player in the modern NBA that compares to Kobe.
In a recent appearance on the ‘Full Send’ podcast, O’Neal was asked which player in the current NBA field is similar to Kobe. Shaq gave a curt response, saying no one is comparable to Kobe right now, and there shouldn’t be an effort to do so.
“Nobody. Stop it”
Their duo didn’t last long after finding success, as they fell out and Shaq eventually left for Miami. Since then, they had a rivalry that lasted for almost the entirety of their entire careers. But after their respective retirements, they seemed to put that beef behind them.
Regardless of their issues, the two always had massive respect for each other’s games. Whether or not they got along, neither could deny just how talented the other player was. Shaq and Kobe have always maintained that they would have dominated the NBA for years to come if they didn’t have their falling out and continued to play together.
