Shaquille O'Neal retires Shaq n Kobe rivalry along with him – NBA Special Report
Near a month back, the legendary centre Shaquille O’Neal announced his retirement from professional basketball. Shaq, who played his last game ironically for the Boston Celtics, was a hero at their arch rivals, the Los Angeles
Lakers.
He enjoyed his most successful period at the Lakers and the franchise has already declared to honour his memory by retiring the jersey of “The Diesel”.
There is a lot that Shaq brought to the league that will be missed. His colourful personality, his brass trash talk, his overpowering dunks and his overall charm made the NBA a more fun league to watch. Amid all the winning and
captivating audiences, Shaq had a little feud that we have also probably seen the last of.
Yes, the one with his teammate at the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant. Shaquille and Kobe were one of the, if not the, most dominating big man-small man duo in the history of the league. When they were in sync and playing well,
the Lakers were simply unstoppable. Their 3 consecutive NBA World Championships form 2000-to-2002 are testament to that.
However almost immediately after, the duo got together back in 1996; they started sparring on and off, leading to one of the most speculated, followed and unique rivalries in the NBA.
For it was one not between opposing players, but between teammates. It all started at the start really, with Kobe Bryant, drafted 13th overall in 1996, exploding on to the unsuspecting NBA scene in his rookie year. The
Lakers had also signed Shaquille O’Neal the same year. Shaq had come to Los Angeles to win the NBA World Championship, something he failed to do with the Orlando Magic.
Shaq was driven to win and with the emergence of Kobe Bryant it seemed like he would have the support he wanted to achieve that goal. However Kobe was still very young and new to all the stardom and the limelight. Naturally he
revelled in it, and seemed more interested in personal acclaim. Shaq, being the Alpha Dog that he was, wouldn’t stand for it.
From then on the two were on uneasy terms. The media got wind of things from time to time, thanks mostly to Shaq’s outspoken nature. After a loss, Shaquille sat in the locker room and pointed at Kobe in front of the cameras saying
and referred to his as “the problem”.
Shaq and other members of the Lakers roster became increasingly disgruntled with Kobe’s perceived selfishness, but things were took a turn for the better with the arrival of legendary coach Phil Jackson.
Jackson managed to ease tensions at least temporarily. He got the duo focused on winning the NBA ring. The dispute about the leader of the team was resolved as well with Phil Jackson basing his offense around Shaquille.
The rest is history, but history also tells us that Shaq and Kobe still didn’t look eye to eye off the court. When the Lakers failed to win the championship two consecutive tries and Phil Jackson, who was heavily favoured by O’Neal,
was let go by the Lakers, Shaq followed him out the door as well.
Kobe and Shaq still managed to spar every now and then and their games featuring the two on opposing teams drew one the highest ratings for regular season games.
Now that Shaquille O’Neal has retired, we will not get to see those games anymore. Shaquille had already buried the hatchet when congratulating Kobe on his 5th NBA World Championship so there’s unlikely to be many sound
bites to feast upon.
For a decade, the two of the finest players in the league played together, won, fought, and entertained the NBA audience like no other duo has in history.
There won’t be any more of that.
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