Shaq And Kobe REALLY Didn’t Get Along In The End

We all have those people in our lives that can sometimes make us snap or go a little too far — that’s just life. Whether it’s a co-worker, ex-lover, family member, or that guy at Verizon that won’t change your data plan, none of those situations should ever warrant a death threat.

Well, per multiple reports, that’s exactly what happened between Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, two of the greatest basketball phenoms to ever play in Los Angeles.

Here’s how we responded on Twitter:

With all of the arguments and banter about who the Lakers should pick at the No. 2 slot in the upcoming NBA Draft, you have to wonder if these new revelations are going to have an impact about which prospect wants to end up in purple and gold.

But it could have its benefits.

Knowing that the Kobe-Shaq power couple were the head of the snake to one of the most powerful NBA teams we have ever seen, this comes as both a warning and a reality check for all the teams of their caliber that have been around since and existed before — sometimes winning brings out the worst in people.

But now the question becomes, did Shaq go to far?

Some would argue that he did. Others, not so much.

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See, it’s normal and almost instinctive to say that what he did is bad — and to that extent, we’d be right to go that route — but we also need to look at how much those kinds of threats are currently affecting their relationship and what relevance it has known.

You have to keep in mind that these comments were made over a decade ago and the damage from what Shaq threatened could very well already be done.

Per the original article on DeadSpin, the deeper beef between the two superstars had a lot to do with the fact that Kobe’s game seemed to be getting to his head and Shaq didn’t understand why Bryant had been showing him no love lately.

An excerpt from DeadSpin reads like this:

"He [Bryant] said I was fat and out of shape. He said I was milking my toe injury for more time off, and the injury wasn’t even that serious. (Yeah, right. It only ended my damn career.) He said I was “lobbying for a contract extension when we have two Hall of Famers playing pretty much for free.” I’m sitting there watching this interview and I’m gonna explode. Hours earlier we had just promised our coach we’d stop. It was a truce broken. I let the guys know, “I’m going to kill him”Shaquille O’Neal, per DeadSpin"

If the Lakers felt they lacked any sort of fire heading into next season this definitely gives people all sorts of stuff to talk about moving forward.

And just imagine — whoever the Lakers end up drafting gets to be in the middle of all this, assuming more details emerge as time elapses.

Oh, what’s not to love about Los Angeles?