Shaq and Kobe: the journey and the heartbreak

In the up-and-coming HBO documentary called ‘Shaq’, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal expressed his ‘regret’ on how he will never get to speak to former teammate and NBA legend Kobe Bryant again.

Bryant and his daughter Gigi were involved in a tragic helicopter accident, which left them and seven others dead on the 26^{th of} January 2020.

In the documentary, O’Neal said, “I’ll never get to see Kobe again, in real life, forever. And I just should have called.”

Let’s go back through the journey that saw the creation of one the greatest duos in NBA history.

The pair were brought in at the start of the 1996 season by Los Angeles Lakers general manager at the time, Jerry West. Shaq grew in disarray against the 18-year-old Kobe after he claimed he would become the best player in the NBA.

In the inaugural season of the pair, the Lakers reached the Western Conference semi-finals. With two minutes left and O’Neal fouled out the game, Bryant proceeded to shoot four air balls down the stretch that saw the Lakers get eliminated.

Between 1997 and 1999, O’Neal became increasingly frustrated with Bryant over his one-on-one style of approach and he wasn’t prepared to keep waiting for him to mature as a player.

The start of the 1999 season saw the arrival of a six-time NBA champion with the Chicago Bulls, Phil Jackson. With the implementation of the triangle offense, the greatest NBA duo was about to arrive.

Between 1999 and 2002, the Lakers won the NBA championship three times on the bounce, with young star Kobe averaging over 25 points per game and Shaq averaging nearly 30 a game.

Prior to the 2003 season, the pairs' comments about each other became spiteful with O’Neal expressing that the Lakers were his team and if Kobe didn’t like it, he should leave.

Throughout the season, against the orders of Coach Phil Jackson, the duo continued to speak to Journalists about the growing tension between themselves.

Despite the immediate fire between them, the Lakers got to the 2004 NBA finals against the Detroit Pistons. However, after five games, they were beaten in dominating fashion by the Pistons.

In 2004 O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat after the Lakers rejected the centre of a pay rise. The following day, Bryant resigned with the Lakers for 7 years and $136 million with speculation arising that Kobe orchestrated the whole move.

Both went on to win more NBA titles. O’Neal won one with the Heat in 2006 and Bryant won two more with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.

In 2019, in an interview between the two superstars, O’Neal famously reflected on how ‘he tore his house to bits’ when Kobe went on to win one more title than Shaq in their careers.

After a few kind words from Shaq throughout the years after he left LA, the world finally saw them come together as friends again at the 2009 All-star game, when Kobe insisted both were named All-Star MVPs.

After retiring, the pair have were very rarely seen together, which Shaq said was due to the workload the pair had during that time with business endeavors and working in TV.

After Bryant’s untimely and horrific passing, O’Neal reflected in sorrow of his passing saying, ‘he was my little brother’ and that it was like ‘being stabbed in the heart.’

In his documentary that aired on the 23^rd of November, O’Neal said ‘Kobe and I had a very complex relationship through the years.’ He went on to say, ‘Kobe and I pushed one another to play some of the greatest basketball of all time.’