How the LA Lakers’ dominant Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant era came to an abrupt end, individual success followed

Bryant and O’Neal found immense success

O’Neal, in the summer of 1996, signed a free agent deal, spurning the Orlando Magic to head to Hollywood to play with the Lakers. He teamed up with a rookie Kobe Bryant, but it took them four years to make their first Finals appearance.

They would win the championship in 2000, 2001, and 2002 before falling to the San Antonio Spurs in the 2003 playoffs. They would get back to the Finals in 2004, with Gary Payton and Karl Malone also on the team, although they lost to the underdog Detroit Pistons.

At their peak, O’Neal was arguably the single most dominant force in NBA history, and Bryant was coming into his own as a perennial MVP candidate and All-NBA guard. On paper, the two could have won many, many more rings, which Bryant pointed out.

“I would have had ______12 rings,” Bryant claimed, had Shaq had the same work ethic.

The drive that made Kobe so great ultimately forced a wedge between the two legends, and O’Neal was ultimately traded away from the Lakers.

Shaq and Kobe couldn’t put their differences aside

O’Neal wanted to be a media star. Bryant just wanted to play basketball. O’Neal, the more senior of the two, did not want to wait for Kobe to develop as a player during their first few seasons together. As a response, Kobe stopped passing Shaq (or anyone else) the ball.

At times, both threatened to demand trades, and the two got physical in 1998, although they quickly put that episode behind them.

Neither attended the other’s wedding, they would not eat together, and were rarely seen together in public. In short, they did not like each other.

After their playing careers, they would go on to bury the hatchet, but as teammates, they simply could not make it work, and after losing the Finals in 2004, O’Neal demanded a trade, which was granted on July 14, and Bryant signed a massive contract the very next day.

The Lakers’ legends found success on their own

While Kobe and Shaq enjoyed the best years of their careers together, they both found success after the trade.

Shaq was 32 and beaten down after years of physical play, but he went on to win the 2005 Finals with the Heat, making four more All-Star teams without Kobe, adding to the four he made before he played on the Lakers.

Bryant would find his favorite teammate in Pau Gasol, and the two would go on to win two rings. Bryant won MVP in 2008 and scored 81 points in 2006.

While Gasol was not as great a player as Shaq, he understood Kobe more and had a bit of “Mamba Mentality” of his own, and was able to overcome any physical shortcomings that prevented him from dominating.

For eight years, the Lakers battled with two of the biggest personalities in NBA history, although they were ultimately unable to put their differences aside, and it’s been 21 years since the NBA has seen a duo as dominant as those two shared the court.