After winning his fifth title, Kobe Bryant determined his post game press conference was as good a time as any to show just how petty he can be. After making note of having more championships than Shaquille O'neal in a postgame interview with Hannah Storm on ESPN, Kobe decided to hammer home the point in his postgame press conference to a sycophantic LA media contingent who began hooting and hollering before he could get the words out of his mouth.
No words about all of the great teammates he's played with and how he would never have one ring without the likes of Robert Horry, Rick Fox, or Ron Harper. Nothing about how fortunate he is to have played for a coach with 11 rings. He merely shrugged when told that Shaq came out and said that Kobe is now the greatest Laker of all time (how quickly we forget a 20 year old Magic Johnson clinching a title on 42, 15 and 7 with Kareem Abdul Jabbar sidelined with a sprained ankle - a far cry from 6-24 in game 7, no?).
The NBA: where petulant superstars happens.
One could spend hours talking about the flaws in Bryant's personality, but there is no denying his greatness as a player. The irony of people comparing Kobe to MJ in his postgame press conference and him pulling Shaq into the equation is that it's obvious he's no MJ and a better debate would be between him and his former teammate.
While it is easy to forget just how dominant Shaq was for a twelve-year stretch, O'neal is the best player of his generation and was clearly the most important Laker of the franchise's run at the turn of the century.
Sure, Kobe has one more ring than Shaq, but it was the big man who simply could not be stopped on his way to three straight NBA Finals MVPs, with Bryant playing a supporting role. Here is how the two played together in the Finals during their three title campaigns.
2000 Finals:
Shaq 38 and 17 (MVP)
Kobe 15, 4, 4 shooting 36.7% in series
2001 Finals:
Shaq 33 and 15 (MVP)
Kobe 24, 6, 5 41%
2002 Finals:
Shaq 36 and 12 (MVP)
Kobe 26, 5, 5
Post-championship run
When Shaq played like a Hall of Fame center in the 2004 Finals and not a top-tier Hall of Fame center (still averaged 27 and 11 shooting 63% from the field, while Kobe put up 23 on 38% shooting), the Lakers lost to a far less talented Detroit Pistons team in 2004.
In 2003-04 the Lakers fought through injuries, but still won 56 games that season. Meanwhile, out in Miami a young Heat team finished two games above .500 at 42-40.
At season's end the Heat traded over half of their starting lineup (Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, and Caron Butler) for O'neal. Pat Riley said at the time, "We feel we have traded for the best player in the NBA. You don't get many chances to acquire the best player in the league."
After trading 3/5s of their starting lineup to acquire Shaq, the Heat won an impressive 19 more games in the 2004-05 season, riding Shaq and the emerging Dwayne Wade (who went from 16 ppg in the season prior to Shaq coming to Miami, to 24 in his first year there).
The 2004-05 Lakers? A 56-win team the season prior to Shaq leaving went 34-48 the first year without him. They were tied with the Golden State Warriors for last in the Pacific Division.
The Heat were 19 games better, the Lakers 22 games worse.
After stripping their roster to acquire O'neal (a reason why many thought Miami couldn't compete that year), Miami was a blown 4th quarter away from their first ever trip to the NBA Finals. Shaq was 1st Team All NBA, while Bryant landed on the 3rd team.
The following two seasons weren't any more kind to the Lakers. They won 45 games in 2005-06 and 42 the next year.
By the spring of 2006 Miami, rode Shaq (now in his 13th year in the league) and Wade to their first title. It took only two years for the Heat to transform from a 42-win team to a champion.
While they were back in the playoffs by 2006, Kobe's Lakers lost a first round game 7 by 31 points to the Phoenix Suns. In a game that Kobe told reporters his teammates "were a little nervous about," Marc Stein said Kobe's second half "looked suspiciously like surrendor" as he attempted only three shots in the closing half, deferring to those same teammates. He had one point in the second half and one assist for the game.
Things evened out a bit in the 2006-07 season. Miami, still featuring Wade and a deteriorating Shaq, won only 44 games, while the Lakers won 42 as Kobe led the league in scoring and made 1st Team All NBA.
This year also marked the real deterioration in O'neal's game, not a surprise for a 350 pound center playing in his 15th NBA season. While 17 and 7 were respectable numbers for most centers, Shaq was slowed by injury and limited to only 40 games of the season. Not coincidentally, the Heat's run as a title contender ended.
Need a glimpse of how impactful Shaq was during his prime? Both Wade and Bryant were among the top five players in the game in their first three years post-Shaq and neither sniffed a title without him. In fact, both Miami and LA were .500 teams at best without him. At worst, they did not make the playoffs.
At the end of his career, Kobe Bryant may be the all time leading scorer in NBA history. He may win a 6th title to match MJ, but to overlook the dominance of O'neal and what this dominance means for Kobe Bryant's legacy would be a mistake by pundits, fans, and Kobe himself.
I know class is a thing of the past in today's NBA, but unfortunately it looks as though perspective is as well. Kobe may have one more than Shaquille now, but without him dominating as he did during their three Finals runs together, he would be four shy of MJ and in a different discussion in the historical context of the NBA.
