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The Lakers’ three-peat on the flip of the century was stuffed to the brim with turmoil behind the scenes. Down the stretch, famous person duo Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal stopped seeing eye-to-eye, ultimately resulting in the latter’s exit in 2004. Particulars in regards to the guard’s strenuous relationship with the middle have been well-documented. Nevertheless, seemingly no person knew that Bryant wasn’t too happy with Phil Jackson’s antics both.
In an interview with GQ in 2015, he was requested about his relationship with the 11-time championship-winning head coach. He unsurprisingly spoke extremely of his former mentor however claimed that he discovered a number of the ‘Zen Grasp’s habits lower than tasteful. He was notably miffed about how Jackson spoke about Bryant to the media.
The guard claimed he understood why the pinnacle coach talked down on him. Nevertheless, he wished his former head coach may have spoken about it instantly as a substitute of manipulating him and O’Neal by the media, which he discovered insulting. Bryant said,
“A part of that was him making an attempt to tame me. He’s additionally very clever, and he understood the dynamic he needed to cope with between me and Shaq. So he would take pictures at me within the press, and I understood he was doing that as a way to ingratiate himself to Shaq. And since I knew what he was doing, I felt like that was an insult to my intelligence. I imply, I knew what he was doing. Why not simply come to me and inform me that?”
The Lakers icon additionally revealed that Jackson would disclose issues to the media that the guard informed his head coach in confidence. Ultimately, this bought to him, and he now not wished to work together together with his head coach off the courtroom. He stated,
One other factor was that I might go to him in confidence and speak about sure issues, and he would then use these issues to govern the media in opposition to me. And from that standpoint, I lastly stated, “No method. I’m not gonna cope with that anymore”… I used to be lastly like, “Fuck it. I’m executed with this man. I’ll play for him and win championships, however I’ll haven’t any interplay with him.”
Regardless of their variations, Bryant and Jackson continued working collectively earnestly. They received two extra championships with out O’Neal, cementing their legacies as considered one of, if not the perfect of their respective roles. It’s intriguing to wonder if the strain between the pinnacle coach and his stars performed a job in serving to the group win championships or if it price them one other ring or two.
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