Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal are two of the biggest names in the history of the Los Angeles Lakers. Both were instrumental in winning three straight championships for the team in the early 2000s and had a complicated relationship, to say the least. While they did eventually talk it out and reached a point where they had become friends once again, it’s easy to forget just how bad things had gotten between them at one point.
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant were quite different as people. Both were dominant on the court, but while Shaq loved to have a good time, Kobe was obsessed with becoming better, if not becoming the best. And eventually, their differences caused a falling out, although they have both since admitted that they were wrong about some things. It’s impressive to see how far they came considering how much they hated one another at one point, and John Salley recently shared a story about that.
John Salley On How The Shaq-Kobe Beef Impacted Shaquille O’Neal
The story of Shaquille O’Neal threatening to kill Kobe Bryant is a compelling one. But when spoken to about it, John Salley was more focused on how it impacted Shaq and how it changed them both as players.
DJ Vlad: “So basically, in the statement from Kobe, and it was an unmitigated slaughter calling out Shaq for everything, like he had saved this up for years…
“Shaq not being in shape, Kobe considered himself much more committed to the game, Kobe lived and breathed it and was obsessed and Shaq was not. Kobe said a guy selling donuts at the 7/11 had more pride in his job than Shaq did… And they didn’t put the article out because of Jim Gray’s relationship with Shaq. But Shaq found out about it and he went ballistic.”
John Salley: “And then Shaq left at the end of that, he wanted to be traded. And they were able to do a deal with Miami… And he realized that Kobe was the future of the Lakers.”
DJ Vlad: “Yeah, I guess that Gray had reached out to Shaq for a response but he refused and he threatened to kill Kobe.”
John Salley: “I tell you, Shaq said it too. Nobody that we know that we worked with was as committed to this game as Kobe… But think about what happened. Because it caused a reaction in Shaq we had never seen. Kobe says that, article doesn’t come out. The next summer, Shaq comes out on September 8th, thin as we’ve ever seen him since he was drafted. And Shaq is in the best shape we’ve ever seen him. But it took that.”
There is no doubt that the relationship between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant was unique as they come. The two weren’t exactly each other’s biggest fans, but they spurred each other to greatness and came out of it successfully. And they eventually reconciled, too, making it one of the NBA’s most lovely stories.
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