How many titles could Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal have won if their partnership never dissolved?
Who knows. They ended up with three. Shaq won another with the Miami Heat, and Kobe went on to win two more with the Los Angeles Lakers. Had they stayed together, though, you get the sense they could have totaled more than five.
Shaq’s prime was on life support when he was traded from the Lakers in 2004, but he had at least three good years left in him at the time, and there’s no telling how he would’ve aged alongside Kobe, inside some semblance of the triangle offense, or how well the Lakers would have fared in free agency and the trade market if they had both Kobe and Shaq on which to sell outsiders.
Alas, we’ll never know. The two butted heads constantly during their eight years together, even when times were exceptionally good. Were they closer, or at least more cordial, their last two championship-less seasons together could have possibly culminated in more titles as well.
Anyhow, Shaq has a podcast now: The Big Podcast With Shaq. It’s co-hosted by John Kincade, and Kobe is apparently the show’s next guest.
On Thursday, the Mason and Ireland show played a snippet of what awaits the world on Monday. And, luckily, Serena Winters of Lakers Nation was kind enough to transcribe the previewed dialogue:
John Kincade: Is there anything, Shaq, that you would like to take back in the give and take over the years?
Shaq: A lot of things, you just played the clip where I said I wanted to be traded. I definitely did not want to leave L.A., but you know that’s how you’ve got to talk when you’re in business, especially when you think you’re in control. Definitely didn’t want to leave L.A. A lot of stuff was said out of the heat of the moment. I guarantee I don’t remember a lot of stuff that they said because I changed my thought process of, you know what we won three out of four, what the hell are you all talking about, this is not really even a story.
Kincade: Anything you want to take back Kobe?
Kobe Bryant: Here’s the thing though, when you say it at the time you actually mean it and then when you get older you have more perspective and you’re like holy shit, I was an idiot when I was a kid. To me, the most important thing was really just keep your mouth shut. You don’t need to go to the press with stuff. You keep it internal and we have our arguments and our disagreements, but I think having our debates within the press was something I wish would’ve been avoided, but it did kind of create this whirlwind around us as a team with myself and Shaq and the press and the media that just put so much pressure on us as an organization.
Good lord, this episode is going to be fire.
Kobe and Shaq don’t really apologize, but they are apologetic. More could be unearthed in the entire episode, but, for now, it seems they’re both at a point in their lives where they can appreciate what they had in each other and admit that, had they approached the entire situation in a more mature manner, things could have been different.
As for what “different” would have meant, we don’t know.
But one has to imagine it would have involved more championships.
