When Shaquille O’Neal threatened to ‘murder’ Kobe Bryant in the 2004 season

When Shaquille O’Neal threatened to ‘murder’ Kobe Bryant in the 2004 season

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal

When Coach Phil Jackson came to Hollywood and started the three-men offense triangle strategy, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal found their rhythm like no other duo could. While the pair never saw eye-to-eye, their chemistry on the court was unmatched in games, where Shaq would dominate the paint and Kobe would run the offense as per his whims. But during the 2003-04 season, things went haywire as the big man had enough of Kobe and went one-step ahead. 

To turn back the pages of history, the Lakers were built around Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. As a result of which, the most iconic team in the NBA went onto win consecutive NBA titles from 2000 to 2002. But in the 2004 season the former player was recovering from his knee injury, when Shaq to state that Bryant should pass the ball more often. This triggered a war of words between the duo, and Bryant decided to take this to a new level. 

Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant

In an interview with ESPN, Bryant decided to question and somewhat criticise Shaquille O’Neal’s leadership and physical condition.

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Why did Shaquille O’Neal threatened to kill Kobe Bryant 

Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant
Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant

“But this is his team, so it’s time for him to act like it. That means no more coming into camp fat and out of shape when your team is relying on your leadership on and off the court,” Kobe said. “It also means no more blaming others for our team’s failure or blaming staff members for not overdramatizing your injuries so that you avoid blame for your lack of conditioning.  

“Also, ‘my team’ doesn’t mean only when we win; it means carrying the burden of defeat just as gracefully as you carry a championship trophy.”  Understandably, never appreciated those remarks. 

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal

“Mostly it was Shaq and Kobe didn’t like each other, but it didn’t affect them on the court,” then-Lakers vice-president of public relations Jim Black told Bleacher Report in 2015. “They would say something about the other, on or off the record, but it didn’t become confrontational more than two or three times over the eight years. When Kobe gave the statement to Jim Gray where he went off calling Shaq fat and lazy, that was one of the times. There was one really bad one, early on. Brian Shaw had to pull them apart. Shaq threatened to murder Kobe.” 

That being said, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant went onto build great respect for one another but up until this date, their partnership and their verbal war has been something to talk about. 

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