Derek Fisher Reveals When Tensions Between Kobe & Shaq Started

Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neals former Lakers teammate Derek Fisher not too long ago recalled when issues began turning bitter between the dynamic duo.

Kobe was excellent through the Lakers’ championship run in 1999-00, however the next season he and Shaq had been nonetheless sharing the highlight.

Bryant didn’t find yourself being the Lakers’ main scorer in that 2000-01 season and Fisher says he was beginning to really feel below appreciated.

“We received the primary title in 2000, and so I feel that second yr…in 2000-2001, that’s when it actually shifted a bit of bit to I feel Kob actually felt like he was being requested to sacrifice a bit of an excessive amount of by way of what — once more, it’s important to keep in mind, Kob actually noticed himself and in the end grew to become one of many G.O.A.T.s,” Fisher mentioned on Podcast P with Paul George. “Proper? And so not one of the guys on that record had been the second man. I imply, in the event you actually go down the record of men that we have now the G.O.A.T. conversations about, I don’t know if there have been a lot of these guys, if any, had been the second man.

“And so I feel in ’01, Kob began to really feel like, ‘To ensure that me to be the G.O.A.T. that I do know I’m able to accessing — I’m keen to place the time in. I’m willig’ to get up at 4 within the morning, no sleep, practice exhausting, play in each sport, play by way of accidents, do the whole lot to grow to be one of many biggest gamers of all time. Why am I being requested to do much less and be much less when my teammate that’s able to simply as a lot or extra greatness isn’t perhaps investing that a lot time, power, etcetera?’

“And I feel that was the yr the place it modified a bit of bit from wholesome — a number of the stress the nice groups do want — to a bit of bit extra like one man is perhaps standing in the way in which of the opposite. And so for the remainder of us on the group, we simply all the time made certain that each guys understood, ‘We’re not selecting a aspect, bro.’”