Winning a championship without significant help is incredibly rare in the NBA, though there have been cases where stars carried the load more than others. On a recent episode of the Off The Record podcast, Shaquille O’Neal was presented with a fascinating debate: Who received the least help en route to a championship—Michael Jordan, Stephen Curry, or Kobe Bryant?
O’Neal, never one to shy away from bold takes, offered a surprising answer. When asked to choose which of the three legends had the least support during their title runs, the Hall of Famer didn’t settle on just one.
“It’ll be a tie,” O’Neal said. “Kobe had a lot of help—and let me go on record, I had a lot of help. So that deletes that. Mike and Steph are the same people. Both bad boys, but they had another bad dude next to them. Klay [Thompson] was—whew! It’s a tie between those two.”
“Mike had to carry a lot, but [Scottie] Pippen was a bad boy,” O’Neal continued. “Steph had to carry a lot, but Draymond [Green] and Klay—those are some bad boys, too. So it’s a tie. Kobe didn’t have to do much—let me rephrase that the right way, because I was there, and I didn’t have to do much, because he was there.”
Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers drives down the court after stealing the ball from Stephen Curry (L) #30 of the Golden State Warriors
O’Neal and Bryant famously teamed up on the Los Angeles Lakers and won three straight titles from 2000 to 2002. That run seemingly disqualified Bryant from O’Neal’s ranking, despite the fact that Bryant added two more championships to his resume after the duo split in 2004.
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Interestingly, while LeBron James was reportedly included in the original question, O’Neal didn’t mention him in his answer. That omission stands out, especially given how frequently James has faced scrutiny over the amount of help he’s had throughout his career.
James first formed a Big Three with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, winning two titles with the Heat from 2010 to 2014. He then built another powerhouse in Cleveland with Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, capturing a third ring in 2016. All four of those teammates have earned at least five NBA All-Star selections, with Wade and Bosh surpassing 10 each. In 2020, James added another title with the Lakers alongside 10-time All-Star Anthony Davis.
Jordan had seven-time All-Star Scottie Pippen by his side for all six championships with the Chicago Bulls in the 1990s. The Bulls also benefited from the presence of Dennis Rodman—twice named NBA Defensive Player of the Year—during their second three-peat from 1996 to 1998.
As for Curry, he has enjoyed extraordinary continuity and talent around him with the Golden State Warriors. He won four titles with Klay Thompson (a five-time All-Star) and Draymond Green (a four-time All-Star), and that core grew even stronger when 15-time All-Star Kevin Durant joined the team for two of those championship runs.
