[TV static drones]
[bright tone]
[ball bounces]
[soft music]
- It's the ultimate teamwork game.
Some teams are beautiful to watch...
so well coordinated.
Everyone seems to be on the same page.
Some guy can just throw a pass,
and you know the other guy is gonna be there.
And it's like a melding of the minds.
♪ ♪
A lot of it has to do
with respective players on the team.
A lot of it has to do with an offense.
But most of the time,
it's some special player
that makes that all work.
♪ ♪
Almost seem like a ballet, to be honest with you.
The coordination,
the beauty of these incredible athletes
flying through the air,
doing things that people...
How did he do that?
And people think they see plays like that
every once in a while,
something that they haven't seen before.
♪ ♪
Those kind of players do it all the time.
[clicks tongue] My goodness, I get excited
just sitting here and talking about it.
♪ ♪
- When you talk about the best in basketball,
it's 50 names that you can say.
Really, 50 names you can say.
From your father's era to your grandfather's era
to my era to my kids' era.
But when you talk about the most dominant,
there's only two in all these eras--
Wilt Chamberlain and Shaquille O'Neal.
And that's what people never understood about me.
I don't want to be the best. Forget all that best.
I want you to fear me. I want you to be scared.
I want you to be so scared, other 28 teams,
that you go to the commissioner and you get the rules changed.
I always thought it was quite interesting
that in the summertime, you get 27 teams
trying to figure out how to stop one man.
- You know the new rules. The zone is no longer banned.
- So, before, you had to be in a certain area,
and then when the ball was passed,
then a double could come.
But now with the new rules,
you can just put two guys on you.
Put a guy in front. You can put a guy in back.
You can put a guy on the side of me.
When I want to do something, I'm gonna get it done,
'cause I know I had to dominate to win.
I don't want to be the guy that goes,
"Oh, he went to LSU, the first pick,
but he didn't do nothing"-- I don't want that.
I want, "Went to LSU, first pick,
NBA champion, Hall of Fame."
That's dominance.
- He was so good, it was almost boring to him,
and when Shaq wanted to play, it was over.
We were gonna win.
But he didn't always want to play.
- No. Shaq didn't like to practice,
but I made exceptions for Shaq.
Shaq, I kind of told, you know, "Really take it easy.
"This has been a long season.
"You put a lot of minutes on the floor.
"Your body needs to really heal
"and come back in September
and start getting ready for the year."
And he did--he came back about September 28the
and started getting ready for the year
instead of September 1st.
- Since I'm playing against these bums in the NBA,
I'm not working out in the summer.
For what? For who?
I'll get in shape when I get in shape.
It's impossible for me to Hack-A-Shaq,
double team, triple team, play 38 minutes a game,
and then work out in the summer.
I'm gonna wear myself out. You need to recoup and rest.
So I will rest.
The good thing about having the weight when I play,
it was extra meat, extra cushion
for the brutality that I was getting ready to face.
I got 395.
When you little fleas would fly, man,
I didn't even feel it.
Get off of me, little flea.
♪ ♪
- There had been friction before I got there,
so it had to be remedied.
Shaq wanted to be his big brother,
and Kobe said, "I don't need a brother."
They were gonna be separate and different
right off the start.
Kobe said, "I'm not interested in spinner hubcaps or girls
"or whatever's going on there.
I'm interested in basketball."
♪ ♪
- Kobe wanted to play at times from the outside in.
Shaq always felt inside out.
- I think that Kobe felt like Shaq's mere presence
and dominance by default
slowed down his presence and dominance.
So, in 2001, I think you started to see
where Kobe wanted more.
And Shaq had to be real, like, taking a step back from 2000.
He wasn't in the same condition,
trying to manage his body.
He had knickknacks and bumps and bruises
as far as injuries,
so he couldn't be that same guy.
- The Shaq in Orlando, he's 285, 290.
The Shaq with the Lakers was plus-300.
We all knew that.
So, when Shaq had an injury,
we know it had something to do with his weight.
That's when Kobe would get frustrated and said,
"Big Fella, I need you. You no help to us hurt.
Come into camp in shape."
And that's where the bickering.
Never about money. Never about shots.
It was about him being in shape
and being available for the team.
- Kobe never did anything on the down-low.
Everything he said, he said publicly and took claim for it.
And his frustration, he'd talk about it on the record
and say, "If I think he's out of shape,
I'm gonna say he's out of shape."
- You got to have thick skin,
'cause when you grow up with a drill sergeant,
you have thick skin.
That's why every day I try to look up
and say, "Thank you, Sarge."
You can't hurt my feelings
with what you say and what you write.
But I am human--I'm gonna get pissed off about it.
- You can compartmentalize those things,
which people that are great almost at anything
have an ability to compartmentalize
what they're feeling at a certain time
in order to complete this project.
- I've learned from an early age
to take criticism during the motivation.
And I had to develop that method
'cause I wasn't allowed to fight all the time.
So I had to develop ways of just compart--
compart--what's the word?
- Compartmentalize. - Yes.
I had to develop ways of compartmentalizing things.
- And we had some master compartmentalizers.
- Even with the Kobe thing,
I would say stuff, and he would say stuff.
And it was perfect, 'cause everything--
every time you watch the game,
you worry about what's going on between us,
but you didn't even know what we was doing on the inside,
and that's why we we're able to...
[snapping fingers]
- The defending champs
playing their best basketball of the season.
They won their last eight.
- The success that the team had continued
regardless of what's going on between Shaq and Kobe.
- And the Lakers cannot play better than this.
- We were just on a mission. Like, we were just hot.
Everybody was healthy. We was playing well.
And everybody knew their role.
Throw it in to Shaq,
Kobe going to get his shots,
and when we kick it to y'all, y'all do what y'all do.
But, like, everyone was just great, and that was our goal.
- Winning one is difficult.
Then to win back-to-back,
that's even harder
because everybody is gunning for you.
Everybody made trades that summer to beat you,
to beat the champ.
[triumphant music]
♪ ♪
- Shaq with the rebound. Oh!
- And the Lakers have swept
the Portland Trail Blazers in the first round.
♪ ♪
- O'Neal gets it deep again.
O'Neal powering in.
A dominating performance from Shaquille O'Neal.
- Isolated by his side, elevates, shoots.
Count the bucket, and he's fouled.
And he tells the crowd to hush.
♪ ♪
- And a rebound battle on the floor.
Finally grabbed by O'Neal, and he slammed it in.
- Los Angeles Lakers running the table
through the first three rounds.
Their third-consecutive sweep,
as they defeat the Spurs...
- I love titles.
I would love to be the first team to go undefeated.
Wilt didn't do that. Kareem didn't do that.
I just love titles.
- And so here we were having handled everybody
in the playoffs so quickly,
we had this two-week window of being off.
When you know that a championship
is only four games away,
it's time to plan for being a back-to-back champion.
We had way too much time off.
We got a little stale,
but it wasn't anybody that was gonna beat us,
not that year.
- Too much to say. - Shot clock turned off.
Final seconds, third quarter,
Iverson double-teamed,
hoists up the three. [buzzer sounds]
Good! At the buzzer!
For the first time in 18 years,
the Sixers are going back to the NBA Finals.
- Hey, man, Philadelphia.
♪ ♪
- Final seconds.
Here's Snow, fired one. [buzzer sounds]
And it won't got down.
- We knew we can win before we came here.
That's the way we are. You know, we play hard.
We came in here expecting to win, you know?
Everybody already counted us out.
We're not gonna act like won it all right now
'cause we still have some more business ahead of us.
You know, we just gonna keep playing hard
and whatever happens happens.
- They win.
They win.
- We were rusty.
AI goes--he goes AI.
And they had their rhythm
from consistently playing in the playoffs.
- We get in the locker room, Phil Jackson tells us,
"Shut the fuck up and listen."
So it was our locker room, another locker room,
and then you could hear their locker room.
And they're down there partying.
He said, "Y'all out there bullshitting.
"We could've went 16-0,
and y'all out there fucking around today."
We had to get refocused.
- And I remember being asked, like, "Are you guys concerned?"
It was like, "Yeah, nah.
We're gonna win the next four games."
[chuckles] 'Cause you just knew.
They're playing over their heads right now,
and that's the worst you're gonna see from us.
Yeah, this is just a matter of time.
- Dikembe, you were in an unbelievable battle down low.
How tough was it against Shaq tonight?
- I think it was great.
I think I did a great job all game.
I knew that my presence on the floor was very important.
I'm glad that I was able to stay there
and help my team win this ball game.
- When I get mad, it's over.
I like Dikembe. I like AI.
I don't really have any animosity towards them,
so I don't have a source of anger that I can play from.
Then Jerome comes in early in the morning
before shootaround.
"Did you hear what Dikembe said?"
I'm eating cereal, Frosted Flakes.
No, what'd he say?
- Hey, listen, Mutombo said he gonna play you one-on-one.
- That... that is a sign of disrespect.
- They disrespecting you.
- I'm like, "He didn't say that."
- This the report he gave to the paper.
- So now I read it.
[imitating Dikembe] "I'm the defensive player of the year.
"We don't double-team.
"I'm going to play him one-on-one.
He's an okay player."
[normal voice] Now I'm pissed off.
[crunching] I'm busting your ass tonight.
[announcer speaks indistinctly]
♪ ♪
- Big ovation for the Lakers.
♪ ♪
- Pretty well here in this first period.
- Able to get terrific position.
- And he just powers himself through Mutombo
for his sixth foul.
- Well, it is a pressure game for the Philadelphia 76ers.
- Rebound down to O'Neal.
O'Neal going up, and he slams the ball.
- A facial served up on Mutombo.
- That series was a difficult series for Dikembe,
but I admire his attempt.
- Wow, Shaquille O'Neal with a ferocious right-hand jam.
- Shaq underneath, another slam dunk!
- Shaq... [whistle blows]
Moves, baseline, shoots.
Score it, O'Neal makes a power move.
♪ ♪
- Whole lot of Shaquille O'Neal.
That's all it was-- whole lot of Shaquille O'Neal.
- Two consecutive MVPs.
Congratulations, Shaquille O'Neal,
the 2001 Finals.
♪ ♪
- Only thing that was going through my mind
was the method that my father always taught.
- I love you, boy. I love you.
- He told me to look at it while the moment is here
and then take it off and start focusing on the next moment.
In this world we live in,
nobody cares about what you did yesterday.
They only care about what you do tomorrow.
♪ ♪
- Understanding Phil over the years,
you could tell that the Sarge
ran the house with a pretty firm arm.
- One thing I will always have is discipline.
Got the military discipline from Sergeant Phillip Harrison,
and I got the law enforcement discipline from Michael Parish
and Jerome Crawford.
And when you put those two together,
nothing can go wrong.
As a kid, I used to...
"What do you want to do when you grow up?"
A basketball player, a rapper, a cop.
- Yeah, he has a passion for law enforcement.
- When I was coming up, we had neighborhood policing.
Put certain cops in certain neighborhoods,
and they would know everybody.
The thing about Uncle Mike and Jerome,
they used to go in the projects, no guns, no nothing,
and get ultimate respect.
Now that I exhibit certain leadership qualities
within the community, I relate to people.
I know what to do.
I'm gonna go to the police academy.
- You know, I was on the street for a long time
out there in Newark,
and I know what the streets bring, you know?
I never encouraged him to do it.
I wouldn't encourage him to do it,
but that's the passion he has.
You know, he wants to be involved.
- I'm gonna show them that,
hey, I'm serious about this law-enforcement thing.
And I was working for the Los Angeles Port Police.
I did what all the guys did.
I did patrol, became a detective,
made arrests, did interviews, all that stuff.
- She he's going into the police academy.
He's making believe he's a cop,
and he came in one morning,
and he started frisking me like I was a criminal.
- And Shaq was always around there
trying to play police with Gary Vitti.
You know, "Get up against the wall."
- Okay, it was cute. It was funny.
Everybody got a kick out of it, but now he continued to do it.
So, like, every morning now I'm getting beat up.
- You know, and then for a while, you know,
it was funny to Vitti, but after a while, you know,
man, come on, man, you know, enough's enough.
- And did he tell you
about the little boxing match we had one time?
- And there was one morning, I'd kind of had it.
It's not funny anymore.
I was busy, and I told him, I said,
"Don't start with me today. I'm busy, okay?"
"What? Get up against the wall."
I said, "I'm not kidding. I'm busy, all right?"
And I started walking away, and he grabbed me
and shoved me up against the wall.
And he reached around the front of me,
and so I bit him.
And he turned around and looked at everybody
in the training room, and he yelled,
"He's resisting arrest."
- He put his hands up like he wanted to fight.
- And he went to wind up to punch me,
and I saw it coming, so I turned.
And he hit me right in the back of my pelvis.
- Boom! So he falls. [imitates groaning]
- Yeah, I thought he killed the guy.
I'm like, "Come on, man."
Vitti in there, he moaning and groaning and grabbing his side.
I'm like, "Oh, Lord, we in trouble."
- [imitates groaning, chuckles]
So Uncle Jerome didn't want me to get in trouble.
Uncle Jerome closed the door.
"Man, what'd I tell you about putting your hands on--"
So we... [laughs]
So we in there trying to console Gary
so he don't tell on us.
Gary's on the table... [panting]
- I had to get two injections from Dr. Lombardo,
our team physician, to walk.
- [panting] He's, like, in tears.
So, like, me and Jerome are, "Okay, okay."
But one thing about Gary, he never ratted me out.
- He was colorful. He was playful.
You wanted him to love you 'cause he's full of love.
He's full of it.
Yeah, until he's not.
♪ ♪
- The motivation to stay on top is to prove legacy.
You wanted to be legendary.
You want to be remembered as a dynasty.
You want to be remembered
as someone that dominated for an era,
and that was the drive in season three for us.
Now we're being hunted.
Now people want to take us out.
♪ ♪
- The two-time defending NBA champions
are headed once again
for the Western Conference Final series.
Standing ovation for the Lakers.
♪ ♪
- The battles against the Sacramento Kings
were probably the toughest battles of my career,
and I don't even know why.
- But we had this up-and-coming team
from Northern California.
You had the Lakers down in Southern California.
One team that had no tradition at all.
One team that had all the tradition.
Phil Jackson kind of inciting their fans,
calling them farmers
and just talking about them bringing cowbells to the game.
Shaq calling them... both: The Sacramento Queens.
- So there was this rivalry brewing.
[indistinct chanting]
- They were together.
They had C Webb. They had Vlade.
They had Stojakovic. They had a couple tough guys.
And they had the belief.
And they really believed they can beat us.
♪ ♪
- Know thy self. Know thy enemy.
1,000 battles, 1,000 victories.
- It's the dream matchup.
Western Conference Final game one, best of seven.
- Defender, shake and bake. - O'Neal just dumps it in.
A little extra pushing and shoving and talking.
- Offensive foul, mental breakdown.
- O'Neal gets his own rebound. [whistle blows]
- And one. Shaquille O'Neal.
[buzzer sounds] - And they take game one.
- Your Sacramento Kings!
At center, number 21,
Vlade Divac!
At forward, number four,
Chris Webber!
- They game by four.
Webber...
Christie, wide open for three.
That's it. The Kings have won.
- Give to Shaq, slam.
- Here's Bibby on a quick release.
- Christie does a 360 turn,
throws it up, no, slam dunk.
- Final seconds. Here's George.
[buzzer sounds]
And the Kings win it, 103-90.
- Engage people with what they expect.
It settles them into predictable patterns
while you wait for the extraordinary moment...
that which they cannot anticipate.
- Horry for the win. Yes!
♪ ♪
- It's just lucky shot. That's all.
You don't need to have a skills, you know,
in that kind of situation.
- Final seconds...
- Just throw it, and if it goes in, it goes in.
[cheers and applause]
- In the midst of chaos,
there is also opportunity.
- In six-- Lakers hoping to take it back
to Sacramento for a game seven.
[whistle blows] And a foul.
Webber's called for the offensive foul.
That's number five on Webber.
- 88-85. [whistle blows]
Laker foul. - That was clearly a foul
against Fisher that did not get called
- Vlade Divac and a foul.
- That's not a foul. I'm sorry.
- What is happening here?
An elbow right in the chops.
- Could've been an offensive foul.
A big break for the Lakers.
- The worst officiated game.
- There were so many blown calls.
- The worst officiated contest in professional basketball.
- That game got a lot of attention.
[whistle blows]
There's some plays in there that you'd like to have back,
but that's every game that I've every refereed.
- There's good calls. There's bad calls.
They go both ways.
And usually in a seven-game series,
the best team wins.
- It will be game number seven
of this Western Conference Final series.
The winner advances to the NBA Final.
Five seconds...
O'Neal putting it over Webber.
Not able to hit. The tip is missed.
♪ ♪
- O'Neal ties it at 106.
Shaq, and he is fouled by Webber.
Lakers recapture the lead with 1:20 left in overtime.
Gets it out to Christie for three.
Way off!
And Rick Adelman and the Sacramento Kings
are headed in the direction of a heartbreaking defeat.
- You know, we were fortunate that we were able
to flip a switch at times
and get to a level that other teams just couldn't get to,
but the Kings almost ended that run.
- ♪ Vlade said that we don't have ♪
♪ Home court advantage, we won't win ♪
- What?
- ♪ Vlade, are you stupid? ♪
♪ I'll tell you time again ♪
♪ You need to go where they know your name ♪
[laughter]
- You know, that's the type of effort
and commitment I was looking for.
Our guys, I thought, played extremely hard.
You know, we competed.
You guys were treated to seeing three of the best players
in the world play tonight.
You know, unfortunately,
they had two of them.
You know, Shaq was being Shaq.
He's so strong, and he's so big,
and he just pushes guys under the basket.
You know, you're throwing it into him,
and it's not even a dribble-- it's just a dunk.
♪ ♪
He's that strong.
We don't have anybody like that.
You know, not only us.
It's 28 other teams that don't have anybody like that.
You know, anybody we put on him is a mismatch.
♪ ♪
Whatever you do, you change the rules to try to stop him,
it's not gonna stop him.
You know, when he wants to take over a basketball game,
with his strength and his size
and his athleticism and as agile as he is for that big,
there's nothing you can do.
- This series has reached the point
where the outcome is not even in the discussion.
- Shaq tells me, you had very poignant message
to him before the game-- what was it you said?
- That this is where it all started.
We began here in New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey,
and all our family and friends are here.
It'd be a great honor to end it all right here, right now.
- Did you tell him this was the most important game
that he would ever play because of that?
- He already know that. He already know--
He told me that, the most important game.
Everybody understand
that this is for Newark, New Jersey,
all our family and friends.
- Fisher, picked up on the switch.
Bryant. Oh!
Kobe Bryant soaring!
♪ ♪
- O'Neal.
A facial!
- Shaq is very agile. He's athletic.
He's the most dominant guy in the league.
Thank you.
- The Los Angeles Lakers have made it
three-straight NBA championships.
In the four-game sweep...
♪ ♪
- I love you, boy. I love you.
- I love you. - [indistinct speech]
- Shaq, to win the MVP for the third time,
becoming only the third man in history
and only the second to win it three-straight years--
what does that accomplishment represent to you?
- Well, I'd like to thank my teammates for looking for me,
having faith in me, having confidence in me,
and just getting me the ball.
I told them once playoffs start,
I was gonna pick my game up-- I told them,
if we make it to the Finals, I wasn't gonna let them down.
And I just told them to get me the ball.
I just want to thank Phil Jackson
for bringing the best out of me.
- Man, it was weird
to watch him go to L.A. and to win championships.
I really felt like we had that same talent,
and we would've been able
to mold the team around Shaq and myself.
I was happy for him, but I was like,
"Man, it should've been me."
But the business always gets in the way of loyalty
and chemistry,
'cause they'll say you're gonna do what's best for you.
I have to do what's best for me.
♪ ♪
- You know, Shaq was a big-bone guy.
His skeleton was big.
It could handle a lot of that weight...
to a point.
And the more weight that you have on your body,
the harder it is, because in terms of ground force,
it's about four times body weight.
So, if Shaq is 300 pounds--
and he was more than 300 pounds--
every step that he's hitting the floor
is about 1,200 pounds of force
on his frame.
And it hurt,
and I know it hurt.
- All my injuries are freak injuries.
I never pulled a hamstring
or never had knee, an ACL, MCL, none of that.
In Orlando, boom, breaks this thumb.
In LA, I bust a capsule in my knee--out six weeks.
The hand again, turf toe,
couple finger injuries, hip arthritis.
Oh, and one time, in the game, I scored,
and I did the Merton Hanks.
[vocalizes] And I tore a stomach muscle.
I was out for eight weeks.
But I had a solution-- pain killers.
I just like to feel loose before the game.
So, one time, I was having pains, and I took it.
And I was like, "Oh," and I had a good game,
so that was my ritual.
Like, I wasn't even thinking anything about it.
They say take one, but I'm a big guy.
My mentality is, well, two will be good.
It would always mess my stomach up if I didn't eat,
so I'd have to eat a big meal.
And then take them, and when I wake up,
boy, I'd be looser than a mug.
What I mean by messing my stomach up--
I'd have to take a shit. - [laughs]
- [laughs]
- That's Uncle Jerome, in case y'all...
No, seriously, I would have to shit.
- I'm glad he couldn't fit in the bathrooms in the buses
or, really, on planes... [laughs]
'Cause had he been able to fit in those places,
those would've been different rides.
He did what he had to do to be on the court.
And if he wasn't out on the court,
it's because whatever it would take for him to be out there
would've crossed a line that he wasn't prepared to cross.
I know he could've stopped on many occasions
to have gotten many more surgeries than he did,
and I know he played through injury.
- Listen, I was under the most pressure,
but I can't let you see that.
But I'm still dealing with it.
So I'll always play hurt. Always played hurt.
- 'Cause he's Superman.
That's the level of vulnerability
that you don't want to share with everybody, right?
'Cause he's expected to be Superman
on the outside, right?
He's expected to be superhuman.
And yet when he shows the vulnerability
or he isn't at his best,
the only thing that gets heaped on him
is the criticism.
♪ ♪
- So I'm playing. I'm working out.
I got some pounds on me 'cause I'm eating--
chicken tenders and pizza and burger,
but I can work that off.
My toe is messing up. I'm like--
I always had bad toes anyway. I'm like, but this--
I can't bend it.
So now I go to the doctor, and he said, "You need surgery."
So I call the Lakers.
I say, "Hey, I need to get surgery."
- There's a reason why the big toe is big.
That's the site that's handling most of the load.
He did have a significant big-toe issue.
Now, that doesn't sound like a big deal, but it is.
- So, if I say I'm gonna get toe surgery
at the beginning of the season--
We got 80 games.
I'm only gonna miss 10, 12 games, relax.
Y'all should be able to hold it down,
but they didn't, and people started talking.
But you know what's gonna happen when you talk?
What's gonna happen when you talk?
You're just gonna feed the beast.
- When looking for someone to blame
for the Lakers' slow start this season,
September toe surgery has made
Shaquille O'Neal the popular choice.
All-Star Weekend, the Lakers big man
defended the timing of his operation.
Shaq told the "Chicago Sun-Times"...
"Since I suffered the injury on company time,
"why should I also be able to get surgery
and do recovery on company time?"
- When Shaq had had the operation on his toe,
that put him back until... playing until December.
Kobe wanted to win four in a row.
The Bulls had won three in a row twice.
Celtics had won three in a row one time.
And Kobe wanted to be part of history,
and he held it against Shaq
that Shaq was not wanting to compete.
- That didn't sit well with Phil,
with my dad, with Kobe.
It just put us behind the eight ball
when, you know, the Lakers were at the top of the heap
and everybody wanted to beat us.
And we needed everybody on deck ready to go.
It didn't feel right.
- [laughs]
I'm sorry. [laughs]
Um...
I found out--I found out in the moment.
I thought it was super hilarious...
in the moment, although I was super mad,
'cause it impacted all of us,
but I thought it was actually accurate.
What he was communicating was a request for feedback.
Do you value me?
Do you respect what I've done so far to this point?
You're speaking to a player.
I'm gonna ride or die with Shaq
on any team at any point in time,
If I can get Shaq for ten games before the playoffs start,
I'm happy.
Won three championships.
The man needed to take a break and get his toe fixed.
- Phil Jackson's got to call a time-out.
This has completely fallen apart.
But the three-time world champions--
how are they ever gonna dig themselves out of this hole?
- Six minutes.
Tony Parker takes a three, and Willis slams it home!
- Look at that.
They're taking Shaq out of this game.
- Oh, this thing's over.
- Now, do you see all the banners?
There won't be a fourth one hanging underneath that one.
♪ ♪
- Now, the decision to not
take care of it in the off-season--
okay, bad decision,
but...
you know, he played with injuries.
And maybe...
just maybe, I...
should've made a bigger deal about that
in the press, in the media,
you know, go to bat for him, cover him.
Guy's playing injured, give him a break.
I didn't do that,
and so that's why there's sort of this...
dichotomy of love...
[sniffles]
♪ ♪
Sorry.
[voice breaking] That I have for him...
because it wasn't easy for him
and he got blamed for a lot of stuff.
Now, granted, there were things
that I think he could've done differently.
But he got blamed for a lot of stuff.
And Kobe got blamed for a lot of stuff.
But what about all the rest of us?
It was a team.
It wasn't just two guys.
- I can say that Kobe and I were the most enigmatic,
most controversial,
most dominant, one-two punch ever created
in all of the game.
20 years ago, that happened 20 years ago,
and you're still talking.
You know, a lot of people like to talk about,
oh, this and that.
You don't know what was going on.
I know what was going on 'cause I controlled it.
I knew exactly what I was doing
when I would leak stories and this and that.
I knew exactly what I was doing,
'cause that's what I do,
'cause you're screaming two names--Kobe and Shaq.
♪ ♪
- They can't win a championship with just Shaq,
and they're not gonna win it without getting together.
- One really can't win
a championship without the other.
- Doesn't a situation like this
divide a team in the locker room?
- Are these irreconcilable differences between these two?
- You know, sometimes when you look out at the landscape
in Los Angeles, the sports landscape,
if the teams are really good and really playing well,
it's almost like sometimes you need something else
to drive the storyline out there.
- They don't talk about the game.
They talk about the outcome of the game,
and then they become critics of the game.
They don't know if it's true or not.
They do it for conversation,
for people to come in and listen.
- There started to be this kind of cycle
of sports talk shows
and everybody had an angle
and a, you know, my sources
say this is what's going on.
- And while it's clear they can play with each other,
it's also clear they're not the best of friends.
- The media is complicit
in creating the divide.
They fed it.
It became something
that you had to hear about constantly.
- I don't think the media fueled it.
They each had their hand in it.
Shaq, he was very media savvy.
He knew that if you get on the good side of the press,
that can go a long way.
And Kobe never had a lack of people
that would enable him to get his story out.
- Are you and Kobe totally cool now?
- Is there coolness between you guys?
- Kobe, Shaq-- how much still lingers?
- No. - And speaking of fighting,
Shaq and Kobe are feuding again.
Yeah, I guess you heard about that.
Well, Phil Jackson said he wanted
the team to get back to normal.
Now they are.
- We have this statement-- "For the Want of a Nail."
"A shoe was lost, and for the want of a shoe,
"a horse was lost.
"And for want of that horse, a messenger was lost.
"And for the loss of the messenger,
a war was lost."
- That season in '03, '04 was
about so much more than basketball
and what we were gonna be able to accomplish on the court.
- And Shaq was in a preseason game
against Golden State Warriors.
- Early in the game, Shaq dunks on Erick Dampier.
- Slam dunk.
- Dr. Buss is sitting courtside,
and Shaq runs by
and looks at him directly and says,
"You better pay me."
That kind of showed up Dr. Buss.
- When it comes to that money, I didn't grow up with money.
This is my only way to get money.
You can only be young once, so I'm taking advantage
of all those money opportunities
that they giving away.
- The dynamics between Shaquille and Kobe
were starting to be exacerbated
and had been exacerbated that year.
- People on the team picked sides.
Management picked sides.
The fans picked sides.
Everybody picked sides.
If Kobe liked you, there's a good chance
that Shaq was not gonna like you.
And if you were Shaq's guy,
then Kobe didn't want to have anything to do with you.
- Shaq looked at Phil as somebody who was on his side.
We all were, but it wasn't working.
- The split between the two of them was greater than ever
due to multiple things--
one of them being Kobe's deposition.
- Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant
has been accused of sexual assault.
- At times, we'd have, like, you know, heated conversations,
but... just a lot of arguing,
but, again, this is stuff you do in real life.
But it's the R-word that will never be dropped.
You can never--he ain't gonna disrespect me,
and I'm sure damn well ain't gonna disrespect him.
One time he did, but I don't need to talk about that.
I'll let you retrieve that information from someone else.
It was only one incident, but I don't want to talk about it.
- Kobe proposed that Shaq had had incidents in his past
and had avoided them.
Kind of exposed Shaquille, and Shaquille took offense.
- Part of the problems, Kobe, go back to your court case,
where it was revealed that you had suggested
that Shaquille O'Neal maybe
has paid off women in the past.
- He was a little hurt by that statement made by Kobe.
Some things you got to just keep in your memory bank.
Just remember that.
Even though you may want to go out there and ring his neck,
you can't do that.
It just won't go across right.
- Earlier in the program,
we told you about the latest round of verbal sparring
between Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant.
Our Jim Gray just got off the phone with Kobe.
- As far as Shaquille O'Neal saying that this was his team,
Kobe said, "It doesn't matter whose team it is,
"nobody cares, but since it is his team,
"no more coming into camp fat and out of shape.
"And when your team is relying on you for leadership
"on and off the court,
"no more blaming others for the team's failure.
"Leaders don't beg for a contract extension
"and negotiate some $30-million-plus-per-year deal
"in the media when we have two future Hall of Famers
"playing pretty much here for free.
"I don't need Shaq's advice on how to play hurt.
"I don't miss 15 games because of toe injury
"that everybody knows
"is not that serious in the first place.
"If leaving the Lakers at the end of the season
"is what I decide to do, a major reason for that
"will be Shaq's childlike selfishness and jealousy.
"He is not my 'big brother.'
"A big brother would've called to lend support this summer.
"I heard absolutely nothing from him.
"I spoke to Devean, Rick, Mitch, Phil,
"and our owner, Jerry Buss, and Shaq's own uncle.
"Uncle Jerome called and left me a message three times,
"but yet nothing,
nothing at all from my so-called big brother."
- Coming out of the All-Star break,
I'll never forget Jim Gray
did an interview with Dr. Buss in Phoenix.
- What do you make of this ongoing soap opera?
This basically dominates the sports pages,
not only in Los Angeles but across the country.
- Well, I think that's only fitting and proper.
I mean, the way I look at it, there are no other sports
and no other franchises, you know,
so we might as well ride it out.
- He asked him, "What's the future of the Lakers?"
He said, "Let's take them one by one.
Let me ask you about Shaq, Dr. Buss."
- During the off-season,
we have to talk and see if he wants to stay here.
You know, we've got an open offer on the table.
- From Shaq's point of view, undervalued,
not what he wanted, disrespectful for him.
What about Phil Jackson?
- There are times where I feel
that he definitely wants to coach,
and there are times when he seems
like he doesn't want to coach.
- What about Kobe Bryant?
- I believe he will be a Laker for life.
- And in that moment, I knew...
That we were done.
- If Kobe Bryant called you on your cell phone right now,
What would you say to him? - I don't have a cell phone.
Because people that I'm connected with,
I'm connected with them.
All you got to do is think, and I'll call you.
I don't have a cell phone.
- Now, granted, we got a second half of the season to go,
and yet...
we still kind of fumbled our way
to the NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons.
- When you're at the top for so long,
those little flaws
and chinks in your armor that are underneath,
everybody gets to look up at those for longer.
And so they start figuring out ways
to tear you down and break you a part.
- Gets inside, hits Shaq-- a beautiful pass!
- And here comes Kobe. Way outside...
♪ ♪
- The scene now shifts east to the Palace for three games.
- The Lakers look discombobulated.
- Rock the house and loving it here!
- The Palace is rocking. The Lakers are reeling.
- Bro, they put a beating on us in game three
that shook us to our core, man.
- The Detroit Pistons hold the Los Angeles Lakers
to under 70 points for the first time
in NBA playoff history.
- And I remember thinking that
there was no way we were gonna win that series.
♪ ♪
And we got embarrassed...
like, embarrassed
for being so fragmented and dysfunctional.
♪ ♪
- We lost to Detroit, the last game.
We had, like, a team dinner,
and the owner wasn't talking to me.
He was talking to the other side.
He didn't say anything to me.
And I looked at my wife, Shaunie,
and I looked at Uncle Jerome, and I was like, "Uh-oh."
And the very next day...
- You can't replace a Shaquille O'Neal...
period.
And that was never our intention.
You know, we knew what we had to do
to hopefully set this franchise up for the next ten years,
and this move, as bold as it was, was necessary.
We made what we considered a very fair offer
that would continue to make him
the highest-paid player in the NBA,
and we just couldn't reach an agreement.
And the understanding was, if we can't reach an agreement,
then that there'll be a trade during the off-season.
- Phil said to my dad,
"Jerry, you can't trade Shaq.
"He's the most dominant player in the league.
Like, you can't give up on him now."
- I've never seen this trade work,
and I've been around for Wilt Chamberlain's trade,
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's trade,
and the teams that lose these players don't recover.
It's an impossibility to match the talent that's left.
- And my dad said, "Well, I'm gonna trade him,
"and it shouldn't make a difference to you
because you're not coming back."
- Kobe's a free agent.
We don't have the right to move him
and get something back in return,
so there exists the possibility that we'll get nothing.
There's no doubt it's a bold move.
I mean, to say anything else,
you know, would not be telling the truth.
But I can say with no uncertainty
that it was a bold move.
- But now I'm pissed, because I'm thinking,
"You can give me enough respect to call me."
I'm a military child.
I'm used to moving every four years.
So now I'm super pissed.
You got rid of my guy, Now you want to get rid of me.
I'm not gonna even argue with you.
Fuck it. I'm out.
- An 82-game season is a grind.
And when I walk on a bus or I walk on a plane
and I see my teammate and it's Shaq,
my day is better.
You can't go from playing with Shaq
to not playing with Shaq.
And so, when he left-- and I knew he was leaving,
he told me he was leaving-- I was just like, "I'm done."
- He knew he was the baddest man on the planet.
He knew that. Shaq knew that.
Shaq knew he was gonna go somewhere and get paid.
I mean... that's easy.
[laughs]
That's easy to know, right?
But sometimes in getting paid,
you actually lose.
- Well, he really didn't see that coming.
I mean, he wanted to be in LA.
You know, Shaq, he had been there eight years.
He really wanted to be there.
It kind of, like, crushed him.
He wasn't too happy about that.
- They both was rising at the same time
because they were winning these championships.
They probably became distanced...
even playing on the same team.
You know, you seen it happen. It can happen.
Success...
success...
it--it--it--it can get you.
Success can get you.
[soft music]
And you don't even know.
♪ ♪
[bright tone]