Shaquille O’ Neal and the late NBA star Kobe Bryant shared an infamous beef. They both donned the Los Angeles Lakers jersey together for eight years. It was a partnership that resulted in three titles out of four trips to the NBA Finals. Given their time together, Shaq was able to measure Kobe’s potential. And according to him, Bryant would’ve been the GOAT over Michael Jordan if he did the “little things.”
Shaquille O’ Neal opens up on Kobe Bryant
It has been noted that the summer of 2004 marked the end of the most dominant guard-center duo in the history of NBA. It attracted massive media coverage. After their split, O’Neal sat down for an interview where he talked about Bryant as a player.
“If he did the little things he’ll be the greatest player to ever play the game. But he’s a great player.”
He then went on to speak about what are the little things which he mentioned:
“Make everybody else better. He’ll be the greatest player ever. Better than Mike. Better than Shaq. Better than Duncan.”
Fans of Kobe might be aware of what Shaq referred to. Bryant was known to be a ball hog during his early years, even when the Lakers were the most dominant team in the league. People say this was one of the crux of Kobe and Shaq’s feud. The Big Diesel wanted the ball in the post as it was the Lakers’ bread and butter. Meanwhile, Kobe wanted more plays to run through him.
Interestingly, over a decade later after Shaq’s comments, Bryant said something similar about him. For the Black Mamba, if Shaq had spent more time in the gym perfecting his skills, then he would have been the GOAT. Bryant even believed he would have had 12 rings if Shaq had shared his work ethic.
“He’d be the greatest of all time. He’d be the first to tell you that. This guy was a force like I have never seen. It was crazy,” Bryant said.
