It is never easy to win championships due to the physical and mental toll that the regular season and playoffs provide. That’s the case for the Los Angeles Lakers as even though they have 17 championships, there have been disappointments.
But, experiencing those shortcomings makes championships worth it in the end; going through a taxing journey in a season and capping it off with a title is what players live for. The Lakers have had many legends dawn the purple and gold, but each of them went through their own trials and errors.
That was specifically the case when the Lakers pulled off a rare feat, a three-peat from 2000-02 that featured Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Rick Fox was a part of that accomplishment and he believes that having hard or ‘ungraceful’ conversations made the team come together, via Damian Burchardt of The U.S. Sun:
“It’s why you saw so much of the challenge between Shaq and Kobe,” the NBA icon told The U.S. Sun.
“You saw so much of the challenge amongst even the rest of the supporting cast. We pushed the big guys, Shaq and Kobe, just as hard as they pushed us.
“I think the important thing that made us great is that we allowed for ungraceful communication to exist in our team environment as long as it was [so] we were pushing each other to the best version of ourselves individually and collectively.
“And so at times, it looked was looking like we were feuding amongst ourselves or fighting, but what we were really doing was demanding nothing but excellence from each other.”
Fox detailed the importance of being able to push each other to get where they wanted to go and that was the NBA Finals. Most players go without a ring their entire career, but for Fox to have won three alongside Bryant and O’Neal, he is forever grateful for that experience:
“We did a lot together and I love them. I love them dearly,” the three-time NBA champion said.
“I’m grateful for them. I always say I have the life I have because the two of them were in my life.
“We did amazing things together. And I owe them… I owe concrete to them.
“I owe everything to them because they were beyond average. They were the greatest to play the game.”
Three-peats don’t happen very often in the NBA, but with a Lakers team that featured the talent that it did in the 2000s, multiple championships were expected.
While it was not always pretty during those times, it paid off and Fox was an integral part of it by pushing guys like Shaq and Kobe, which is something that is not seen in today’s NBA.
O’Neal funds new L.A. Boys & Girls Club court
O’Neal won three out of his four rings with the Lakers and spent most of his prime in the purple and gold. He is now giving back to the community of Los Angeles by funding a new Boys & Girls Club basketball court.
More must-reads: