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Back in 2005, Michael Jordan had a one-on-one discussion with Marvin Shanken, the editor and publisher of Cigar Aficionado.
Shanken had the opportunity to sit down and interview Jordan about his life, achievements, passions, and dreams. As the interview went on, Marvin brought up the LA Lakers' messy situation at the time. He asked MJ about his thoughts on how he would fix the team.
Jordan said that the Lakers' biggest problem came about when they let go of their superstar big man Shaquille O'Neal. Jordan pointed out that it was a bad move, as O'Neal had brought three back-to-back championships for LA from 2000-02. Shaq was the most dominant big man at the time, so sending him away was the worst idea the Lakers came up with.
"I would have never gotten rid of Shaq," Jordan said. "It's as simple as that. You've got three championships with a big man, and big men are hard to find. Not only that, you have the most dominant big man in the game today. You don't just send him away because you got some problems."
Looking back at the time Michael Jordan went up against Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal
Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were considered one of the best duos in NBA history, but Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal were not far behind. Bryant and O'Neal won three back-to-back championships with the LA Lakers, similar to Jordan and Pippen, who accomplished their first three-peat with the Chicago Bulls.
By the time Kobe and Shaq had developed into two of the most dominant forces in the NBA, Jordan was slowly fading away. Jordan only had four opportunities to battle against the dynamic duo. He averaged 21.5 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.0 assists per game against the Lakers pair.
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal comfortably outperformed arguably the greatest player of all time. Bryant averaged 22.8 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists against MJ in eight games. O'Neal averaged 25.0 points, 14.1 rebounds and 2.0 blocks against Jordan in 11 games.
