In January 2004, with the Los Angeles Lakers sitting on a 26-11 record and Karl Malone and Gary Payton both on the roster, an anonymous NBA general manager told Sports Illustrated: “In the history of the game, there’s never been that much turmoil after that much success.” By the end of that summer, the partnership had been dissolved, one traded to Miami, the other re-signed to stay. Two decades later, a five-time All-Star and Pacers legend who spent years trying to stop them is now making the case that the breakup was the best thing that ever happened to the debate.

Reggie Miller told Dan Patrick on Thursday that he is grateful the two greatest players in Lakers history never got along. “I’m glad they didn’t like one another, and they broke up,” Miller said on The Dan Patrick Show, “because seriously, you can make a case they’re arguably the greatest duo ever.”

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant won three consecutive NBA championships in 2000, 2001, and 2002, and made a fourth Finals appearance in 2004 before O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat. Miller argued that their mutual friction was not a flaw in the partnership; it was the reason the conversation about their place in history remains open. Had they stayed together and won more, the debate might have been settled. The breakup left it alive.

Miller also addressed the question of who was Batman and who was Robin, a framing Dan Patrick had raised, and placed the shift at a specific point in their shared run.

“I would probably say that third championship,” Miller said. “When they beat Philly, that’s when it was probably two Batmans.” In the 2002 NBA Finals, the Lakers swept the New Jersey Nets in four games, with O’Neal winning his third consecutive Finals MVP. During that same season, O’Neal and Kobe Bryant combined to average 52.4 points, 16.2 rebounds, and 7.9 assists per game on their way to a 58-24 regular-season record, even as tensions between the two had intensified. Miller acknowledged that the ascent to two co-equals was also the moment the fractures began. “That’s when it probably started to crack,” he said.

When Dan Patrick confirmed “it’s Kobe and Shaq,” Miller agreed without hesitation. “Kobe and Shaq has to be the greatest duo ever,” he said. The names he placed alongside them are not slight company. He acknowledged Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen as a legitimate counter; Jordan and Pippen won six championships together with the Chicago Bulls across two three-peat runs in the 1990s, a sustained level of dominance that no team has matched since.

No team has completed a three-peat since the O’Neal-Bryant Lakers did it in 2002. Miller also raised Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the Showtime-era pairing that he called “Magic and a downsized Kareem,” before offering Magic and James Worthy as another point of comparison.

Reggie Miller: Magic Johnson and James Worthy Make the Case, but Kobe-Shaq Wins

The Magic Johnson alternatives Miller floated are historically substantive, which is precisely what makes his final verdict significant. Magic Johnson led the Lakers to five NBA championships across nine Finals appearances during his 13-year career, averaging 19.5 points, 11.2 assists, and 7.2 rebounds per game, winning the Finals MVP three times and the regular-season MVP on three separate occasions.

The Kareem pairing produced championships in 1980, 1982, and 1985; as a duo in the 1984-85 season, their best together, the two combined for 40.3 points, 15.8 assists, and 14.1 rebounds per game, with Magic shooting 56% and Kareem shooting 59%, as the Lakers defeated the Boston Celtics to win the title. 

The Magic-Worthy version of the debate carries its own argument. James Worthy won the 1988 Finals MVP with a triple-double of 36 points, 16 rebounds, and 10 assists in the clinching game against the Detroit Pistons, and across the four Game 7s he played in his career, he averaged 27 points and 8 rebounds on 60% shooting.

The Lakers averaged 59 wins per season across Magic Johnson’s tenure, posting a combined .710 winning percentage in regular season and playoff competition. Miller clearly knows this history, which is why his decision to land on Shaq and Kobe Bryant carries more weight with him than with most.

His reasoning was ultimately rooted in what the partnership produced under pressure, and what it left behind by not lasting longer. O’Neal himself has said the two pushed each other to play some of the greatest basketball ever, and that no team has matched what the three-peat Lakers accomplished since.

Miller did not disagree. He added that the feud, the friction, and the eventual breakup created the permanent debate that cements their legacy in a way a clean, amicable dynasty might not have. “Thank God,” he said, that they didn’t.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​