"IF I NEVER PLAYED WITH HIM, MY NUMBERS WOULD HAVE BEEN RIDICULOUS" - KOBE BRYANT CLAIMED SHAQUILLE O'NEAL SLOWED HIM DOWN
Kobe Bryant dreamed of becoming the best basketball player on the face of the planet ever since he fell in love with the game. So, it's no surprise that he wasn't satisfied with what he accomplished as a player in his first eight years with the Los Angeles Lakers because of the presence of Shaquille O'Neal.
Kobe saw himself as a remarkable player, but there's no telling what he could've achieved if it wasn't for Shaq.
"Because I played with Shaq. It's that simple," Bryant told ESPN when asked why he only won one MVP award. "A lot of the time we cancelled each other out. I sacrificed a lot playing with him. I really did. I did it for the success of the team. If I never played with him, my numbers would have been ridiculous."
Bold but accurate take
As bold as it was, Bryant turned out to be right when he said he sacrificed a lot when Shaq was around, especially on the offensive end. Numbers also back Kobe's claim as he truly started dominating after O'Neal left the Lakers for the Miami Heat in 2004.
Kobe put up almost identical assists and rebounds numbers, but his scoring was undeniably off the charts. In his second Shaq-less season with the Lakers, Bryant logged a staggering career-best 35.4 points per game. And the cherry on top? An 81-point outburst against the Toronto Raptors. Bryant followed it up with another 30+ points per outing season and was finally crowned the regular season MVP in 2008.
Championship-wise, Bryant had to face some bumps on the road before finally proving that he could win without O'Neal. An interesting fact is that Bryant won more NBA titles than Shaq since their split.
Kobe's game was complete
Kobe claimed his "game was complete" after the Lakers wrapped up their historic three-peat in 2003. Having felt he had been sacrificing all those years, Bryant may have thought the time finally came to prove that he was better than Shaq from that point forward. The Black Mamba never publicly announced it, but former Laker Kareem Rush felt it.
"I think that we were favored by everybody to win the series [2004 NBA Finals], you know, and at the time, Shaq had the first three Finals MVPs. So I think Kobe had the mindset with that as the primary focus, but I think he was really itching to get that MVP," Rush reflected.
Whatever was going on in Bryant's head at the time, he left us with something to re-assess after suggesting that he could've achieved even more if Shaq wasn't standing in his way.