Kobe Bryant Passing Shaq on NBA Scoring List Icing on Cake for Epic Rivalry

Last night Kobe Bryant passed Shaquille O'Neal for fifth on the all-time scoring list. It had to be a sweet moment for Bryant, who has had a long rivalry with his former teammate. 

Former Lakers teammates, the team won three NBA titles before their rivalry became too deep and drove a wedge through the team that ultimately made it unsustainable. The Lakers chose to keep the young Kobe Bryant over the aging but not yet old Shaquille O'Neal.

In Miami a couple of year later, with some help form Dwyane Wade (by "help," I mean one of the greatest single offseasons in the history of the NBA) Shaquille O'Neal won a fourth ring. 

Afterwards Shaq, in a vulgar video, asked Kobe Bryant how a certain part of his anatomy tasted. Two years later, Kobe Bryant won his fourth ring. A year later he won his fifth.

When asked what it meant to him personally, Kobe said, "Just one more than Shaq ... you can take that to the bank."

This is a rivalry that has spanned a decade. Between the two players one, the other or both have won six of the last 11 championships, and have been in three more. 

After the tandem of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, they can be argued to be the greatest pair of teammates in the history of the game. 

The two have had ups and downs and at times seem to move past their past, but the story never seems to go away. Surely, because of all that history, it has to mean something to Kobe Bryant to pass O'Neal to move into the top five all time.

There probably couldn't have been a sweeter player to move aside.