The Los Angeles Lakers have been extremely lucky when it comes to having superstar talent don the iconic Purple and Gold jersey. But unarguably two of the most iconic players to ever play for the Lakers were Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
The two superstars are easily the legends of the franchise for various reasons. But that doesn’t mean there weren’t any issues between them. One of them was apparently how the then-head coach Del Harris was forced to give special treatment to Kobe Bryant.
Shaquille O’Neal Once Opened Up About How Del Harris Had To Give Special Treatment To Kobe Bryant
The relationship between Bryant and Harris was far from perfect. The Mamba even credited Harris for showing him the lowest moment of his career. But on contrary to that, Shaquille O’Neal revealed in his book that Harris had outside influence when dealing with Kobe.
Via Sports Rush:
One thing I admired about him, though, was he didn’t care if you were Shaquille O’Neal or Kobe Bryant—he was hard on everybody. If Kobe came down and threw it between his legs ten times and then made a pass, Del would call a time-out and tell him, “Pass the damn ball!” and then Kobe would talk back and Del would sit his a** down. That was impressive, until one of Buss’s cronies would come up in the middle of the game and tap Del on the shoulder. He’d tell Del, “Put the kid back in the game.” I never knew what the guy’s name was, but there he was, always lurking around our bench, talking to our coach while we’re trying to beat San Antonio. Meanwhile, the fans are all chanting “Kobe! Kobe!” so Del Harris didn’t have much of a choice. He’d have to put Kobe back in.
According to this excerpt from Shaq’s book, Harris was forced by Jerry Buss’ people to keep Kobe in the game. After all, at the time, Kobe was expected to become the next big thing in the NBA.
For what it’s worth, Bryant succeeded in living up to those expectations, albeit at the cost of his relationship with Shaq.
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