Shaq Attack: O'Neal Can't Win Without Help, Either

 Point being, Shaq couldn’t win without Kobe adding extremely valuable scoring and perimeter defense, and he couldn’t win without Phil adding the Zen-master triangle offense.  No one can deny those two figures’ impact on O’Neal’s game. 

 Of course, two stars as big as Bryant and O’Neal, and two egos as big, and two heads as stubborn, the dynasty was destined for an unpleasant conclusion.  By many accounts, Bryant demanded the split, but the details have evaporated into a foggy murk, and no one apart from Shaq and Bryant know the inner workings of the deal.  Either way, after three championships with Bryant and Jackson, O’Neal took off for Miami.

 There, he wasn’t quite the same unstoppable force everyone saw in L.A.  He had become a heavier, slower version of his previous self, but still demanded both on-and-off-the-court attention.  Dwyane “Flash” Wade, as Shaq coined him, began his rise to stardom with O’Neal on the side.  Wade was the true star of the team—the Finals MVP and candidate for MVP of the regular season as well.   

 And that was Shaq’s last championship.  He never won without a huge contributing guard on the team.  To say “Kobe couldn’t do without me” and fail to recognize that he couldn’t do it without Penny, Dwyane, or Kobe is pure arrogance, ignorance, and denial.  It was a joke, as rap battles are prone to generate, but I just got sick of the “Kobe has to prove that he can win without Shaq” talk without mentioning that O'Neal couldn’t do it without help, either. 

 Plus, while occasionally humorous, Shaq’s actually kind of a jackass.

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