Shaq: (Kobe) had room to operate cuz I got 3 people on me. I coulda got 3 in a row w/ T-Mac. 2 w/ Vince. 6 w/ steph

[Jedi32]

The constant repetition of the same superficial arguments by users in this thread who are obviously incapable of regarding any context is astonishing.

Kobe didn't make it out of the first round when he had a comparable lack of help like McGrady in Orlando, neither. But hey, T-Mac got Yao. Never mind that he had injury problems (as did Yao)... Such excuses don't matter.

Stop.

They blew two 2-0 leads in 2005 and 2007 with both T-Mac and Yao healthy.

They hate facts but love woulda coulda shouldas. Next shaq will be saying he could have won 3 with smush Parker and watch some here defend it.

[Black Jack]

Kobe lost in the First Round of the Playoffs multiple times when he wasn't playing with a First Ballot HOF big man and even missed the Playoffs altogether while in his prime in 2005… Results do matter indeed.

Last time I checked Yao is a HoFer.

It's one thing to miss playoffs sometimes but the super elite all won rings or at the least make good hard runs to conf finals like Harden. TMac was a flashy player who simply does not belong in the conversation with the greatest 2 guards of all time because of his pathetic playoff record.

One of these is not the same: Jordan, Kobe, West, Wade, Harden, McGrady.

Do you remember what TMAC said? He said if he had Shaq averaging 35/14/5 whatever the numbers were he averaged in the finals he could've won a chip with him to. It sounds like you've gotten so far away from that point talking about where he stacks up against the all time greats. You really seemed to take this personally as such an insult to Kobe as if its blasphemous lol. Its not blasphemous, its way closer to fact than your willing to accept. You don't need to start insulting the guy just because you feel dude is challenging his greatness lol its sounds like your insecure about Kobe or something lol

Meh both Shaq and TMac have made some version of these comments.

Here we go here's mine: if Kobe had been paired up with a hard worker like Duncan he could have won more rings than the 3 he managed with Shaq before the big aristotle fell off due to not being disciplined.

Who do you seriously think wins more rings: Kobe+Duncan or TMac+Shaq

Mind you, I am not a Kobe stan, he was always too much of an MJ impersonator for my taste especially in the first half of his career.

I'm only really a Warrior fan anyway, I just watch other teams fairly objectively other than a few franchises and players I don't like for this or that reason.

[Masigond]

They hate facts but love woulda coulda shouldas. Next shaq will be saying he could have won 3 with smush Parker and watch some here defend it.

Well, duh! The woulda coulda shoulda is the whole topic here. It was T-Mac who said he could have won championships with Shaq, and Shaq agreed.

The whole prerequisite is the assumption if that could have been true.

Noone would say that Smush Parker would have been enough in place of Kobe. Nice strawman. Is there another conversation that noone's having that you want to ridicule?

[sashaturiaf]

Hey Shaq 5> 4

Can you dig it

No doubt you were an all time duo together as witnessed by that 15-1 playoff run even though the rest of the roster were all role playing scrubs. But Kobe replaced you with Pau Gasol and still went to 3 straight finals. So you call yourself MDE but how much better are you than Gasol? A skilled euro but no doubt youd call him soft and he couldn't win a single playoff game before he played with Kobe.

[1993Playoffs]

I mean I agree but the fact that he said it is funny lol

[OBisHalJordan]

Could Shaq have one three championships if he played with Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, or Manu Ginboili?

[Onlytimewilltel]

Last time I checked Yao is a HoFer.

It's one thing to miss playoffs sometimes but the super elite all won rings or at the least make good hard runs to conf finals like Harden. TMac was a flashy player who simply does not belong in the conversation with the greatest 2 guards of all time because of his pathetic playoff record.

One of these is not the same: Jordan, Kobe, West, Wade, Harden, McGrady.

Do you remember what TMAC said? He said if he had Shaq averaging 35/14/5 whatever the numbers were he averaged in the finals he could've won a chip with him to. It sounds like you've gotten so far away from that point talking about where he stacks up against the all time greats. You really seemed to take this personally as such an insult to Kobe as if its blasphemous lol. Its not blasphemous, its way closer to fact than your willing to accept. You don't need to start insulting the guy just because you feel dude is challenging his greatness lol its sounds like your insecure about Kobe or something lol

Meh both Shaq and TMac have made some version of these comments.

Here we go here's mine: if Kobe had been paired up with a hard worker like Duncan he could have won more rings than the 3 he managed with Shaq before the big aristotle fell off due to not being disciplined.

Who do you seriously think wins more rings: Kobe+Duncan or TMac+Shaq

Mind you, I am not a Kobe stan, he was always too much of an MJ impersonator for my taste especially in the first half of his career.

I'm only really a Warrior fan anyway, I just watch other teams fairly objectively other than a few franchises and players I don't like for this or that reason.

I mean both of those are most likely true. Healthy T-Mac could probably win three championships with Shaq, and Kobe could win more than 3 championships with Duncan. Both seem like they could arguably be reasonable predictions. Not sure why it has to be one or the other.

[KennerLeaguer]

Shaq all time NBA MIP.

Most Insecure Player.

This very true. But he isn’t completely wrong.

[levon]

This sort of backfired on him because now the talk is Kobe + Duncan would have won 6-8. And it's absolutely correct. Shaq is a really low EQ person.

[tsherkin]

This sort of backfired on him because now the talk is Kobe + Duncan would have won 6-8. And it's absolutely correct. Shaq is a really low EQ person.

Kobe and Duncan would have been an extremely interesting pairing, to be sure. Would be fairly intriguing to see what Kobe would have looked like in Pops' system, and how well that relationship would have gone.

[Lalouie]

could shoulda woulda

he was too busy dancing like a jabbawokee

shaq is fundamentally wrong. any player of kobe's level isn't dependent on other players

[levon]

This sort of backfired on him because now the talk is Kobe + Duncan would have won 6-8. And it's absolutely correct. Shaq is a really low EQ person.

Kobe and Duncan would have been an extremely interesting pairing, to be sure. Would be fairly intriguing to see what Kobe would have looked like in Pops' system, and how well that relationship would have gone.

Or how filthy Duncan would be in the triangle. Also they wouldn't be facing each other in the playoffs all the time, so the runway would be even more clear. Insanely complementary skillsets and personalities.

[tsherkin]

Or how filthy Duncan would be in the triangle. Also they wouldn't be facing each other in the playoffs all the time, so the runway would be even more clear. Insanely complementary skillsets and personalities.

Duncan in the triangle would have been excellent. Not as dominant as Shaq from a scoring perspective, of course, but he was a great post player and also an outstanding defender. So the trade-off was there. And at his peak, Duncan was still a pretty nasty scorer.

They'd have definitely clicked well together on the court.

[Masigond]

I think I had read all 13 pages, but I haven't seen someone refer to the whole interview.

Shaq said:
The man (Kobe) is vital to my three championships.Vital. Vital. I didn’t do it by myself.

Some parts of the series more vital than me.
I did what I had to do, but if he don’t do what he had to do, would we have three?

Never know. I’m arrogant enough to say I can get one by myself. But three by myself, no way.

Watch on YouTube

Go to 1:17:30

After that he said that he might have won 3 with McGrady, 2 with Vince, 6 with Curry. Is that really downplaying Kobe? He literally said that he could only win three straight titles because he had great help from Kobe. As had been said: The early 2000s Kobe Bryant was great, but so was McGrady back then. That's the take.

But I guess that some people just want to be outraged.

[vado]

Shaq definitely would have won a championship with those other guards. It’s not that bold because the other guards are all hall of famers. I don’t know if they would have 3 peated, but they would have at least got 1.

[flytimes11]

Would anyone disagree that the 01 spurs were better than the 01 6ers? Too much emphasis is put on the finals mvp because Kobe led the way that series. That notion that he was carried is crazy.

[LakerLegend]

Shaq also said Kobe's in the GOAT discussion in the exact same interview: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nba/shaquille-o-neal-believes-kobe-deserves-to-be-in-the-goat-discussion-i-hear-people-go-straight-from-mike-to-lebron-and-no-kobe/ar-AA1JkFWe?ocid=msedgntp&pc=ASTS&cvid=68855e5418df48d5b277dc4a0d7eb6f9&ei=63

[Yank3525]

Would anyone disagree that the 01 spurs were better than the 01 6ers? Too much emphasis is put on the finals mvp because Kobe led the way that series. That notion that he was carried is crazy.

They had a harder time with the Sixers then they did with the Spurs. Philly was a couple plays away from being up 2-0. The notion that Kobe was "carried" in 2001 is dumb, but the narrative that the "real" finals was the WCF that year is inaccurate IMO.

[LakerLegend]

Would anyone disagree that the 01 spurs were better than the 01 6ers? Too much emphasis is put on the finals mvp because Kobe led the way that series. That notion that he was carried is crazy.

They had a harder time with the Sixers then they did with the Spurs. Philly was a couple plays away from being up 2-0. The notion that Kobe was "carried" in 2001 is dumb, but the narrative that the "real" finals was the WCF that year is inaccurate IMO.

They only had a "harder time" because they were rusty after having a bunch of time off before the finals after running through the west and waiting for Philly to fight it out in the East.

[LakerLegend]

Shaq must have forgot his and Kobe's stats in Game 7 vs. the Blazers..