Lakers News: Naming the worst move by the franchise since 2000

Recent Lakers news is that Bleacher Report recently named the biggest mistake of the franchise since the year 2000.

While we wait for the NBA season to start back up, recent Lakers news has been about a look toward the past.

Recently, Bleacher Report made a list of the biggest mistake for every franchise in the last 20 years. There are certainly some eye-popping mistakes that franchises have made, including the Lakers.

For Los Angeles, the biggest mistake for them was not being able to fix the relationship between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.

In 2004, the Lakers made one of the biggest decisions the franchise ever had to make, as they decided to choose Kobe over Shaq in their ongoing feud. Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat for Lamar Odom, Caron Butler, Brian Grant, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick.

When the two were teammates, Bryant and Shaq were able to win three championships together and make the NBA Finals four times. Winning three straight championships was a great feat for the two, and if they had stayed together, they might have won even more.

In the first season without Shaq, the Lakers missed the playoffs. O’Neal eventually embraced being a bit of a sidekick with Dwyane Wade on the Heat, and those two won a title together.

For Kobe, he was eventually able to get the sidekick that he needed in Pau Gasol, and those two won two championships together.

However, the “what if” of if Kobe and Shaq stayed together will always be a great question. Seeing how Kobe became one of the greatest of all-time and Shaq embraced not being the No.1 option, the two might have been able to win another couple of rings together.

Even though the Lakers have made their fair share of mistakes since then, it is hard to argue that not being able to fix the relationship between two of the greatest of all-time is pretty bad.