Shaq, Kobe Showdown Brings Back Magic vs. Bird Rivalry to NBA
By Marc J. Spears
AOL BlackVoices
LOS ANGELES -- After the much-anticipated Christmas Day showdown, Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant turned to the media covering Shaquille O’Neal and the Miami Heat and asked when the next meeting was. They immediately said: “March 17.’’ Bryant responded with a smirk.
Shaq-Kobe: Round 1 at Los Angeles’s Staples Center had the hype of a championship boxing match and lived up to it. While future meetings will be hard to live up to the first one, this new NBA rivalry will have the nation’s attention every time it takes place.
''I've never seen a game this hyped,’’ ex-boxing champ Sugar Ray Leonard said. ‘‘It's like a big boxing match. It's great. It makes for good theater.''
O’Neal and Bryant won three NBA championships with the Lakers, but often didn’t see eye to eye. Bryant has been blamed for O’Neal’s trade to Miami and coach Phil Jackson not returning. Bryant, who had a sexual assault charge in Eagle, Colo., dropped against him Sept. 1, also told investigators that O'Neal paid up to $1 million to women to keep quiet about certain indiscretions. O'Neal dismissed those allegations as "ridiculous."
With all that in mind, it wasn’t surprising that they greeted each other in lukewarm fashion before tip-off.
‘‘Being married, I don’t want any interplay or foreplay with a married man,’’ O’Neal said. ‘‘Just, ‘Hey, how are you doing?’ That’s it.’’ O’Neal warned of a potential hard foul to Bryant by saying you know what happens when a Corvette hits a wall. Bryant laughed at the comment. Early in the second quarter, O’Neal fouled Bryant hard during a lay-up. While numerous fans booed O’Neal, others cheered.
‘‘I backed the Hummer out of the garage, man, and went straight to the bucket,’’ Bryant said.
While Bryant shot free throws early in the third quarter, a member of O’Neal’s entourage yelled out, ‘‘You snitch.’’ Another wore a T-shirt with an old Lakers picture of O’Neal and Bryant with Bryant’s face replaced with a rat’s head.
The emotional game took a surprising turn when O’Neal fouled out with 2:57 left in the fourth quarter and the game tied at 91. Without O’Neal, the game went into overtime.
With 3.4 seconds left in OT and the Lakers down 104-102, Bryant shot a potentially game-winning 3-pointer. Bryant, who scored 42 points, didn’t finish as the hero as his shot didn’t fall.
‘‘I knew it wasn’t going to go in. It’s called Shaq O’Neal fate,’’ O’Neal said.
Celebrities such as Sylvester Stallone, Prince, Snoop Dogg, Samuel L. Jackson, Nicole Kidman, Dustin Hoffman, Courtney Cox-Arquette and many others were on hand. There were about 140 credentialed media members from as far as Spain, Japan, China, France, Israel and Iceland there, too.
“It's beautiful for basketball, for the people and the (NBA) in general to have these type of rivalries,” Snoop Dogg said.
The NBA has had to endure a lot of negative press over the last couple months, but maybe this rivalry can give them some good news in a great rivalry it’s been searching for since Magic Johnson versus Larry Bird.
When asked if he has buried the hatchet with Bryant, O’Neal said, “I don’t have a hatchet.’’
About the author: Marc J. Spears is the NBA beat writer for The Denver Post.