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When Shaquille O'Neal joined the LA Lakers, he signed the biggest contract in the history of professional sports. After dominating the league as a member of the Orlando Magic, Shaq took his game to the next level by taking his talents to the biggest stage in the NBA: Los Angeles.
There he was paired with a young and hungry Kobe Bryant. Although the duo achieved great success, they butted heads on more than one occasion. The feud ultimately contributed to the demise of the Shaq/Kobe Lakers of the early 2000s, but not before they had won three straight titles together.
During that time, the pair had quite the feud over O'Neal sitting out 15 games as the result of a toe injury. Kobe didn't think the injury was very serious, and he seemed to think that plenty of others felt the same way. Sportswriter Jeff Pearlman wrote about the saga in his book, "Three-Ring Circus":
“I don’t need Shaq’s advice on how to play hurt. I’ve played with IVs before ... with a broken hand, a sprained ankle, a fractured tooth, a severed lip and a knee the size of a softball. I didn’t miss 15 games because of a toe injury that everybody knows wasn’t that serious.”
Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant
Although the two were able to ultimately work their differences out years later, there was a point when Kobe was ready to leave Los Angeles. Before going public, Bryant told O'Neal that he planned to opt out of his contract. The way he saw things, Shaquille O'Neal was too childlike, selfish and jealous.
“I won’t make that decision until the end of the season. I told Shaq last year that I was planning on opting out. He knew before anyone. I told him out of respect for what we have been through together. I thought he should be the first to know. The fact that he acts like this is such a big shock is a mystery to me."
(Suggested Reading: When Chris Childs dubbed MJ one of the dirtiest players ever)
Of course, Bryant ended up sticking around, while Shaquille O'Neal and Phil Jackson left. When Shaq left, he went to Miami, where he won a championship in his second season alongside Dwyane Wade.
Two years later, during the 2008-09 season, Kobe Bryant won his first NBA championship without O'Neal. The next season, Bryant went back-to-back, famously claiming that at least he now has one more than Shaq.
On the flip side of things, after Shaquille O'Neal watched Kobe win a fifth championship without him, he admittedly tore his house apart.
"I tore my house up. I went crazy. 'Cause, when I got four and you got four, that's straight. When you got that fifth one, you said, 'I just wanted to get one more than Shaq.'"
You can see footage of their famous sit-down in the video above.
(Suggested Reading: When Shaq suspected Phil Jackson was using drugs)
