Kobe and Shaq Both Admit They Screwed Up When They Were Teammates

We picked the right guy to back. Shaq went down hill in a hurry due to his lack of conditioning and work ethic. Loved prime Shaq but he really fell off quick. Barking "Pay Me" at Dr. Buss after rehabbing his toe "on company time" didn't exactly endear him more to the FO either. We can always wonder "what if" but really the biggest what ifs at the time were: What if Shaq wasn't such a total jerk and wasn't so lazy? If he could have taken care of those two things then maybe the band could have kept on going so to speak. But as it was, I had no real problem when we booted him.

 

Agreed. In that short clip Kobe made it clear that a) Shaq was the problem and b) his opinion then is still his opinion now.

The difference isn't in Kobe really it's in Shaq. SHAQ is the one who admitted he screwed up. He thought he was on top and thought he was in control and he overplayed his hand. He thought there was absolutely no way the Lakers would trade a 3x Finals MVP and pick this young know-it-all over him. Then they did.

@lakerjones I think part of the decline was actually DUE to the Lakers trading him. After his passionate outing in Miami where he was determined to get a ring before Kobe and the Lakers, he lost his way. He basically admitted that they called his bluff and so entering into his mindset: where does he go from there? After he "gets revenge" by winning a ring before them... what now? Pretty much nothing.

If both of them had been bigger men in that moment and accepted what was around them I think they'd have really been able to do something special. edit- well... more special.

 

Totally agree with you on Shaq screwing up real. He overplayed his hand with the good Doc and Buss had enough. Interesting too, that Riley straight up knocked his $30 million price tag right down to 20 when it came time for his extension.

I'd kind of have to agree to disagree slightly with you on Shaq's decline, though, realdeal. Not saying it had nothing at all to do with it, as certainly psychology does play a huge part in athletics, but I still think most of what was going on with Shaq physically had already begun or was pretty well in effect when they traded him. He was on the downhill slide physically and the Doc probably moved him at precisely the right time or at worst one year early. Maybe the trade exacerbated his downfall though as you said. It's hard to say because his work ethic and conditioning were so awful at that point. Chicken or the egg?

 

Oh I don't disagree with that at all. His bad work habits were catching up to him. I mean he was big and fat during our threepeat run, but afterwards he was quickly becoming just fat. I think part of that was out of hubris and protest that we weren't breaking a bank vault for him. Part of that was laziness. Part of it was just mother nature. I mean there were, as always, a ton of forces at work on that one.

All I'm saying is his journeyman run around the league after that 4th ring and his body declining was all due, in my opinion, to him no longer having a goal. He'd accomplished what he wanted so his body just started to give up on him and his mind wandered and he ended up finishing his career with a whimper instead of a bang. My thinking is, if he'd stayed and sucked up his pride... what would we have seen? If it was Shaq being Pau from 2004-2008 would we have seen a ring or two more? If Shaq swallows his pride then and Kobe takes over, who joins them? Does Pau ever become a Laker?

Fun to think about.

 

Abdul-Jabbar an even prideful man than O'Neal subjugated his ego to Johnson which resulted in two more chips and a pair of hamstrings away from a third. Had The Big Center Of Attention done the same...who knows what the results might have been? With him and 24 at his peak or near to it, the Lakers would have been a prime destination for free agents of note to sign with. Then again, two high salaried players would have tied up the cap.

To be honest, it worked out for the best. It took a short time to rebuild...thanks to Memphis of course. The drama was toned down, focus on team cohesiveness and it enabled 24 to take the reigns as the leader as well as develop a better working relationship with Jackson.

 

I can't believe what I'm hearing on ESPN today, after a decade of hearing the opposite from them. All of a sudden, Kobe did not run Shaq out of town, it was always Dr. Buss' choice. Funny how that changed in an instant after Kobe being the villain for so long just because Shaq spoke.

 

Well to be fair, it's ONLY because Shaq admitted fault here. Dr. Buss sent him off ONLY because Shaq couldn't back down from his high horse.

If this all came out and Kobe and Shaq were still talking about how Kobe wanted the team etc etc (which is still true), then we'd be getting the same rhetoric as always.

Shaq was just such a more lovable guy, heck he still is. The media will jump at what he says.

 

Why make peace now?

I've already picked Kobe in the divorce. No going back now.

 

You know they were going to talk about this.

Stephen A Smith talking a lot of truth in this. That Kobe story at the end of this video that Stephen tells about Kobe and the locker room Classic Kobe

 

^That was a great first take, thanks.

 

The only thing Smith is really good for is his personal connections to players. I make it a rule not to watch Bayless, but Stephen A dropped a couple of great stories.

Is anyone surprised Dwight was the catalyst?

 

Agreed with Ras. Probably the best I've seen. Great stuff from Stephen A.