Leonardo DiCaprio Names Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal Lob As Favorite Live Sports Moment

The Los Angeles Lakers, featuring Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, dominated the early turn of the millennium as they rattled off the NBA’s most recent “three-peat.”

O’Neal and Bryant formed the most dominant duo in the league as the former ruled the paint while the latter made teams pay from the perimeter. Although the two had trouble getting along during the regular season, they understood what they needed to do to win titles with the Lakers. O’Neal admitted he pushed Bryant’s buttons, but it was a ploy to get the best out of him and it worked.

The superstar tandem produced countless exciting and thrilling moments, but their most famous play is widely considered to be Bryant’s lob to O’Neal in the closing moments of Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals against the Portland Trail Blazers. Bryant was able to get by Scottie Pippen and lobbed it up to O’Neal, who dunked it home and gave Los Angeles a six-point lead with less than a minute to go. The Lakers went on to win the game and series and eventually captured the 2000 NBA Championship.

The stars lined up Staples Center and Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the actors who were in attendance. In an appearance on New Heights with Jason and Travis Kelce, DiCaprio named the lob between Bryant and O’Neal as his favorite in-person sports moment:

“Kobe, Shaq, Trailblazers, the lob. I think that was the Western Conference Finals… The whole stadium just shot up into the air. I remember that. That was an incredible moment, man.”

As a Los Angeles native, the play had to mean something to DiCaprio who saw the Lakers punch their ticket to the NBA Finals. The team actually spent most of Game 7 trailing but rallied in the fourth quarter to beat a Portland team that could have very easily won the championship.

The lob is an iconic play in NBA Playoff history and is often replayed once the postseason comes around. Over two decades later, the storied franchise is still chasing championships and it’ll be interesting to see if they can return to the mountaintop.

Tracy McGrady doubles down on take about winning titles with Shaquille O’Neal if he replaced Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant’s rise as a superstar coincided with Tracy McGrady who some considered to be better than the Lakers star. Recently, McGrady boldly claimed he would have won titles with Shaquille O’Neal if he replaced Bryant and he doubled down on the take after receiving some pushback.