Shaq, Kobe reveal source of past beef at all-star weekend

Shaquille O'Neal, left, and Kobe Bryant chat at the unveiling of a statue of O'Neal in front of Staples Center, Friday, March 24, 2017, in Los Angeles. (Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant got together for a ‘Players Only’ special on TNT and revealed what caused the dominant duo to split in 2004.

The pair won three straight titles from 2000 to 2002, but fell apart against the Detroit Pistons in 2004.

“I admit, a lot of times, I didn’t come into camp ready, because that’s just how I got down,” Shaq said. “My thinking is, I don’t need to get ready for dunking. I don’t need to get ready. I’ll get ready when I get ready. Because I had you, I was able to just chill out in the summer, do what I do.”

Kobe quickly replies, “See, that’s what pissed me off. That was it right there.”

Bryant has long been known as one of the hardest workers the league has ever seen, while O’Neal being such a unique physical specimen allowed him to at least think he could coast through the regular season and play his way into shape. Kobe estimates he spent close to “10 hours in the gym,” while Shaq spent his time “recovering from the Hack-a-Shaq,” by eating burgers, enjoying summers in Orlando and time with the family.

It’s a shame, really. The pair were arguably more dominant than Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen, or even Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but apparently the difference in off-season habits created a rift too powerful to overcome.

Kobe describes wanting to go to practice as soon as possible knowing he had to be ready to argue and fight, knowing there was a chance he could get beat to a pulp, but that that’s what would make it a good practice.

This part of the interview is interesting, as Shaq believes they are the best duo to ever play because they were able to win three rings together in spite of all the controversy and media attention they had to overcome. One would argue that the other pairs are greater due to the fact they actually maximized their potential.

The conversation also goes into the first time the pair had a feud, and it came before the start of the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season. The two were playing a pick-up game against each other at Los Angeles Southwest College and O’Neal started to trash talk and insult Bryant.

Kobe challenged him, and before you knew it, Shaq’s large fist was coming for his face. Bryant describes narrowly evading the punch before people stepped in to separate them.

So, keeping in mind that it sounds like this pair was destined to last only in the short term, it is impressive that they could see eye-to-eye often enough to go back-to-back-to-back.

Kobe goes on to reveal he was ready to join the Chicago Bulls in 2004 and that he and his wife Vanessa had even picked out the neighbourhood they wanted to live in. That plan went up in smoke once Shaq requested a trade out of Los Angeles.

Could they have won four or five or six or seven together without the beef? Let us know what you think in the comments section below.

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