"Don't know if it was a slap or a push" - Former Shaquille O'Neal teammate confirms infamous story behind his altercation with Kobe BryantÂ
Shaquille O'Neal and the late Kobe Bryant will forever be remembered as one of the best duos in NBA history. However, their relationship as teammates wasn't always smooth sailing. Their relationship sometimes boiled over, which led to some altercations with each one.
Prominent sports writer Jeff Pearlman launched a book about the LA Lakers' late 90s to early 2000s dynasty. The book shared stories of the Purple and Gold's struggles during the Shaq and Kobe era. One of these struggles involved O'Neal getting pissed at Bryant and deciding to physically confront him as his form of retaliation.
Shaquille O'Neal's former teammate on the Orlando Magic, Dennis Scott, recently confirmed the story of the Big Diesel's altercation with the Black Mamba.
"Well I don't know if it was a slap or a push," Scott said in an interview with Run It Back. "'I really don't want to fight, but I got to show you I'm Shaq.' Is probably the best way I could say it."
Looking back at Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant's feud as teammates
Arguably the greatest LA Lakers duo of all time, Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant played together for eight seasons. Throughout that period, they easily dominated the NBA by winning three consecutive championships together. However, their journey to success wasn't an easy one.
Before winning their first of three titles, a young Bryant burst into the league in 1998. Despite being the 13th pick of the draft, Kobe garnered many fans, which caused O'Neal to get slightly jealous. Bryant's jersey sales were doing better than Shaq's considering how the Big Diesel was the face of the Purple and Gold at the time.
Shaquille O'Neal's jealousy of Kobe Bryant then led to his annoyance toward the rookie due to his selfish style of basketball. In the following season, O'Neal began making fun of Bryant but claimed that it was simply inside jokes between the Lakers duo.
After their first championship, the love-hate relationship between Shaq and Kobe became public. This was due to O'Neal showing up to LA's training camp out of shape. Bryant had always been known for taking basketball seriously. Seeing how his duo didn't take the game as seriously as he did, Kobe whined and suggested that the team should revolve around him instead.
Naturally, O'Neal disagreed with Bryant's sentiments and told their coach, Phil Jackson, that the plays should still run through the big man. Getting fed up with the situation, coach Jackson forced the two players to play nice. Ultimately, Jackson's efforts paid off as the Lakers won two more titles with the duo of Shaq and Kobe.
However, it all fell apart when the LA Lakers fell off in the 2003 NBA playoffs. Kobe Bryant was getting better and Shaquille O'Neal was becoming more injury-prone. The Lakers then had another shot at glory when they brought in Karl Malone and Gary Payton to help O'Neal and Bryant. Sad to say, they found no success, which forced the Lakers organization to make a decision of which star to keep.
From then on, the duo of Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant ended, with the Lakers ultimately keeping the Black Mamba as their primary star.