Years After Infamous Shaquille O’Neal Beef With Kobe Bryant, Lakers Legend Spills the Beans: “Obsessed With Challenging…”

Published 11/27/2023, 8:06 AM EST

The Los Angeles Lakers were the last team to three-peat in the NBA. The duo of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant helped in achieving this monumental task. A major part of the supporting cast on the Lakers at the time was Rick Fox. The Canadian recently revealed how the battles between the players helped them win three championships.

According to the 54-year-old, the entire team demanded the best from each and every player, and that was the reason behind internal feuds on the roster. But Fox believes that it only helped them get better.

The main reason behind the Lakers’ three-peat, according to Rick Fox

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Along the way to winning three championships, Fox pointed out that something that pushed the team forward was the competitiveness of all the players. Fox claimed that everyone on the roster was “obsessed with challenging each other.“

The Lakers were battling it out with other teams while also having their own internal competitions among each other. Fox recalled that this was one of the reasons why Shaq and Kobe would always make headlines surrounding their arguments.

According to the US Sun, Rick Fox said, “And so at times, it looked was looking like we were feuding amongst ourselves or fighting, but what we were really doing was demanding nothing but excellence from each other.“

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Fox claimed that both Shaq and Kobe demanded excellence from each other, and so did the supporting cast. Everyone held each other accountable, and nothing less than your best would suffice for the Purple and Gold.

The feud between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant

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Bryant and O’Neal had their differences when they were teammates on the Lakers. Kobe was not happy with the work that Shaq was putting in. On the other side, Shaq was not happy about all the attention received by Kobe. This even led to physical altercations among them.

But as time went on, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant slowly patched up their relationship. Although it was not during their time as teammates, they fixed things among themselves afterward.

The duo kept their differences aside when they were teammates and brought the best out of each other, leading to the first and only three-peat of the 21st century.

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What do you think of Shaq and Kobe’s relationship? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!

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Written by:

Rijin is an NBA writer at EssentiallySports. Specializing in the technical aspects of the game, keeps a close eye on the three principles of coaching of Gregg Popovich: Humility, Discipline, and Determination. That same attention to detail made him a big fan of the reigning Finals MVP Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets.

Edited by:

Aakash Nair

Years After Infamous Shaquille O’Neal Beef With Kobe Bryant, Lakers Legend Spills the Beans: “Obsessed With Challenging…”

The main reason behind the Lakers’ three-peat, according to Rick Fox

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The feud between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant