Shaquille O'Neal says his feud with Kobe Bryant was a marketing stunt

The Los Angeles Lakers have had some of the most iconic duos in NBA history. Jerry West and Elgin Baylor, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and of course: Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant.

It’s no wonder why this franchise holds the record for most NBA championships (17). They’ve had some of the greatest players of all time wearing the purple and gold jersey, and there’s a certain standard they have to live up to if they want to make it in LA.

Nonetheless, even though some of their duos have been great on the court, it doesn’t mean that they have a good relationship outside of it. Or at least, that’s what Shaq and Kobe got us thinking throughout the years.

Shaq Reveals His Feud With Kobe Bryant Was For Marketing Purposes

Shaq and Kobe reportedly didn’t get along and their egos got in the way. Eventually, Shaq was traded to the Miami Heat and Kobe took the reins of the Lakers. But now, after all these years, O’Neal revealed that they never had any bad blood and that their beef was all for the show:

“I perpetuated it out of the locker room because the one thing I understood was marketing. So, ‘I don’t like him and he don’t like me,’ and everybody talked about us. That’s all I want. It kind of went too far where people kind of believed it. If you believed it then you think we win 3 out of 4?” The Big Diesel said in Full Send Podcast.

Of course, there’s always the chance that Shaq is just lying because of Kobe’s fatal accident. If not, there’s not a reason to think they wouldn’t have stayed together to try and win another couple of rings.

The truth is that the ‘beef’ idea wasn’t far-fetched at all. They both had strong -and opposite- personalities and big egos. So, if Shaq is telling the truth, we should never forgive him or Kobe for keeping us from watching them together for many more years.