The Los Angeles Lakers have one of the most legendary histories in any sport, although it’s not without tough times. One of the most tumultuous periods in the NBA franchise came in the mid-2000s, which marked a feud between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. The tension between the duo (who have won three championships together) was detailed in Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakers (Transmissible with a Hulu subscription ). Now, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, one of the show’s interview subjects, has shared more about how the Bryant-O’Neal feud made the team “dysfunctional” at the time.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar may have quit playing for the Lakers in 1989, but the legendary center was still around in the early 2000s. At the time, Abdul-Jabbar was occasionally participating in training, as seen in the images below. Inheritance. In the wake of the seventh and eighth episodes of the series, Abdul-Jabbar offered fans behind-the-scenes details via his News bulletin . As for the feud between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal, the Hall of Famer said the dysfunction was partly due to Shaq wanting his partner to spend more:
Shaq wanted Kobe to spend more and Kobe didn’t care what Shaq thought. When their two most dominant players don’t get along, the team becomes dysfunctional. No one is happy, there is no team stability, each match feels like a separate battlefield rather than part of a seamless season.
Many probably remember the attention the Lakers received during this period. Although the two players had disagreements throughout their careers as teammates, things seemed to get worse during the 2003-2004 NBA season. At the time, the two stars also started a kind of back and forth following the comments they made to the media.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar can certainly relate to the experience of Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal more than most of the others. Years ago, Abdul-Jabbar competed with the presence of a highly motivated young player in Earvin “Magic” Johnson, when he was drafted from Los Angeles in 1979. However, the two seemed to have a mostly harmonious relationship over the course of 10 years. . . they played together. (As a result, they also won a total of five championships.) Discussing Bryant and O’Neal, Abdul-Jabbar went on to say that Black Mamba defied Shaq’s work ethic at the time:
The problem was that Kobe was obsessed with reaching his peak as a player, so he stayed in top form all year. But he saw that Shaq lacked commitment to the game and the team allowing himself to lose form in the off-season and barely recover for the season. Because of this, Kobe has lost respect for Shaq and Shaq has lost all influence over Kobe.
While things were seemingly controversial between the two for a while, they eventually settled things down for a while. long interview in 2018 . This reconciliation became even more significant later Kobe Bryant’s death aged 41 in 2020. Shaquille O’Neal was among many who paid tribute to the star after his passing and again honored Bryant on the first anniversary of his pace. More recently, Shaq explained how I used to push buttons on Bryant to motivate him. also diesel showed his support for Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, during her recent trial for the deaths of her husband and daughter.
The dysfunction Kareem Abdul-Jabbar talks about may have been difficult for the Lakers organization at the time, but, in the end, things worked out for both the stars and the organization as a whole. Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004 and won a fourth championship, while Kobe Bryant led the Lakers to two more NBA titles. But ultimately, what’s particularly touching to know is that the two have finally been able to get through the drama.
Those who want to learn more about the history of one of the NBA’s most beloved teams can watch the new episodes of Legacy: The True Story of the LA Lakerswhich fall on Wednesday as part of the TV program 2022 .
Source: Cinemablend
