The Shaquille O'Neal L.A. retrospective continues.
A day after an audio clip of The Big Podcast With Shaq with Kobe Bryant as a guest in which O'Neal revealed he never wanted a trade out of Los Angeles, he went a step further and told Sirius XM Radio that if given the chance, he'd relive his entire relationship with the Black Mamba, lakersnation.com reported.
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The duo led the Lakers to three consecutive championships from 2000-02, but tension between the superstars grew and came to a head during their epic 2003-04 season.
The team signed free agents Karl Malone and Gary Payton - back when the Lakers easily could sign big-name free agents - fully expecting to win a title after losing to the Spurs in the 2003 Western Conference Finals.
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In July, 2003, Bryant was accused of sexual assault, and during the season, he went back and forth from the courtroom in Denver to Laker games. Los Angeles started the season with a 20-5 record before Malone suffered a knee injury that forced him to miss 25 games.
The injury reocurred during the playoffs, rendering Malone ineffective in the NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons. The Lakers lost in five games, coach Phil Jackson retired (the first time), Shaq went to Miami after the season, Kobe Bryant nearly signed with the Clippers, Malone retired, Payton went to the Boston Celtics and Derek Fisher went to the Golden State Warriors.
For O'Neal to say that he would've gone through all that again speaks volumes.
"With Shaq now retired and Kobe entering his 20th season in the NBA, both stars are much wiser than in their earlier years and Kobe in particular called himself an 'idiot' with how he acted," lakersnation.com reported. "The fact that Shaq would do it all over again shows that he loves winning more than anything, and those Lakers were very successful."
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