You never really understand what you have until it’s gone, that sorta defines the relationship for Kobe Bryant with Shaquille O”Neal.
Yesterday, the Mamba spoke on Shaq’s Podcast and spoke on their rocky relationship.
Per Source Sports quoted Bryant perfectly on how he undervalued O’Neal and tweeted this meme.
"I didn't appreciate Shaq until I played with Dwight"- Kobe Bryant on the Shaq Podcast. pic.twitter.com/yONHZMjKiQ
— Per Sources (@PerSources) August 27, 2015
The odd thing for Bryant and O’Neal was they were an undeniable duo who won 3 consecutive championships from 2000-2002.
However, Kobe was a young king looking to rule the NBA and needed to have his own team naively to prove he was the alpha dog in Los Angeles.
Enter Dwight Howard.
This pairing of Howard and Bryant was doomed the moment this happened during Superman’s rookie year.
Howard never played hard as Kobe wanted or played through injuries as he liked, which of course made Howard leave to Houston and out of Los Angeles.
The sad thing about Shaq and Kobe is we never know how many rings they could of really won, even with their one NBA Finals loss to the Pistons in 2004.
Glad to see Bryant finally understand how important O’Neal was to him.