Against the Grain II
By Vaughn Wilson
The way the NBA is going with a heavy concentration on three-point shots, probably the last great guard-big man duo in professional basketball might be Shaquille O’Neal and the late Kobe Bryant. Shaq and Kobe combined for three consecutive NBA championships from 2000-2002. Both are regarded as two of the Top 50 players ever in the NBA. By most accounts they would both land in the top 20 players of all time.
For a long time the two were both inseparable and synonymous. A friendly competition on their team somehow spilled over and grew into a feud between the two. The reason the disparity grew is of no concern. That is where finger-pointing and the grey area come into play.
The Lakers were the last team to three-peat for NBA Championships. O’Neal would migrate to Los Angeles after starting a promising career in Orlando with the upstart Magic. Bryant played for one team only…the Lakers. He was regarded as a prodigy, following the footsteps of his father as a professional basketball player. Bryant would bypass college and go straight to the NBA from Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania.
The feud between Bryant and O’Neal grew to a nasty public spectacle. In 2004, O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat as the Lakers prioritized keeping Bryant as Shaq was nearing the end of his career.
The two had seemed like brothers for most of their careers. Shaq and Kobe were almost a noun. They were a thing. They graced the covers of magazines together, they appeared on shows together, and shared the spotlight for several appearances on national media stages.
However, unfortunately the distance between the two grew. Comments, accusations, and just contention grew in the public arena. Neither of the two would hold back when asked about the other. Fans chose sides and that fueled the divide even further. Talk shows took to the issue and made it even bigger in the public eye.
O’Neal would go on to win a championship with Dwyane Wade and the Miami Heat in 2006. Bryant would win back-to-back championships with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010. Bryant would declare after winning his final championship “It’s one more than him,” referring to O’Neal. From there, things would only go further downhill.
Suddenly, there was no time to repair their relationship that by O’Neal’s account could probably have been squashed by time and conversation. It is one regret that he cannot repair. He admitted that there were no deal breakers in their relationship, but they just didn’t get together and put their differences aside.
In a shocking helicopter crash in 2020 at the age of 41, Brant passed away. His daughter Gianna was aboard and also died. It sent shock waves through the entire world. Bryant was a beloved figure across the globe. In all accounts, it was a life ended too soon as he was only 41 years old.
O’Neal, who was a broadcaster on the TNT channel finally was able to verbalize his feelings in public. It was a sorrowful statement full of regret in a special interview around Bryant’s demise. “I haven’t felt a pain that sharp in a while. Our names will be attached together for what we did. People always ask about our relationship and I tell em’ it’s like me and Charles (Barkley). You’ve got two strong-minded people that are going to get it done their way…gonna say certain things…the respect will never be lost,” O’neal said.
“I’m going to do a better job of reaching out to people instead of always procrastinating because you never know. I could never imagine nothing like this. I wish I could say one last thing to the people we lost. Once you’re gone you’re gone forever and we should never take stuff like that for granted.”
Too many family, friends, and other relationships have been strained by things that may have seemed monumental at the time, but in fact they are miniscule to the grand scope of life. If we learned nothing else from the pandemic and the sudden departure of an astronomical number of family, friends, and loved ones, it’s that tomorrow is not promised. In some circles it almost appears cool to be at odds with someone else.
Don’t be like Shaq and Kobe. They went on with their busy lives and never sat down and put the seemingly small matters as compared to life and death, that divided them aside. Now, for the rest of his life, O’Neal admits he will live with regret. He has taken an oath not to allow that to happen to him again. We should all be like Shaq in this take as we celebrate this holiday season, call that friend or family member and celebrate that there is life in your body to make amends. It will be a weight lifted that in most cases you realize was not as heavy as either of you made it.
