Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant enjoyed tremendous success during their time as teammates on the Los Angeles Lakers. O’Neal and Bryant led the Lakers to a three-peat from 2000 to 2002, but split just two years later. There was tension behind the scenes, and O’Neal spoke about their relationship on the Armchair Expert podcast.
“If you look up at our relationship, it’s the classic tale of The Godfather,” O’Neal said. “You got the Godfather who came from Orlando, and he’s the Godfather. But you have a young capo… He’s Michael [Corleone], yes. I’m the Godfather, ’cause remember when I came to LA, I was already established.”
That might not be a completely accurate comparison. Michael Corleone wasn’t aspiring to be the top dog in the mafia world from the beginning. Bryant, on the other hand, always wanted to be that alpha on the basketball court. He wasn’t interested in being O’Neal’s sidekick, and the two would clash for one reason or another.
“We win three, we do a lot of deals, and then finally I get assassinated,” O’Neal stated. “They thought I was dead, and I relocate to Miami. And then I got to get it back.”
O’Neal was disgruntled by the time 2004 came around. Not getting the kind of deal he wanted, and tensions with Bryant contributed to his asking out. The Lakers sent him to the Miami Heat, and he’d win a championship in 2006.
O’Neal can’t help but wonder, though, what might have been if they had stuck together.
“I always think about what happened if we would have stayed together,” O’Neal said. “We either would have won more or it would ended very badly. And then I had to teach myself, stop worrying about useless titles. It’s a useless title.”
O’Neal initially emerged as the winner in this split thanks to the title he won with the Heat in 2006. Bryant had sleepless nights watching that triumph, but it wouldn’t be long before he returned to the top. He won back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010, and O’Neal stated he destroyed his house after his former teammate surpassed him in rings.
While O’Neal and Bryant showed they could win without the other, you’d think they would have won more had they stayed together. O’Neal himself once stated they would have won seven championships, and they could well have, if they had managed to coexist.
O’Neal and Bryant would remain at odds with each other in the years that followed. They would eventually mend fences just a few years before Bryant tragically passed away in a helicopter accident in January 2020. An emotional O’Neal stated he regretted not calling his former teammate and wished they had stayed in touch.
O’Neal has now become one of Bryant’s biggest defenders and often calls for him to be included in the GOAT debate. He looks back fondly on their time as teammates as well and believes they have gone down as the most dominant duo ever. They’re certainly in that conversation.
