He said that LeBron realizes taht he can't win it alone. He thn added that LeBron realizes that "even Michael had Scotty (Jordan and Pippen) and even Kobe has Shaq." HEY F*&(KHEAD - GET IT RIGHT - SHAQ has KOBE. Without Kobe, the Lakers do just fine. Without Shaq, the Lakers are an average team, at best. With Kobe gone next year, the Lakers will do JUST FINE. What an IDIOT!
Trust me, LSUBUD...SI does an NBA Mid-Season report each year at the All-Star Break... I have gotten my subscription each year since 1993... They ask the GM's and coach's a certain set of questions each year... By 1996, they retired a question...or rather, they tweaked it... They stopped asking GM's and coach's, "If you could choose or sign one player to build your franchise around, who would it be?"... They started asking, "Other than Shaquille O'Neal, if you could choose or sign oen player to build your franchise around, who would it be?"... This is verifiable fact...Shaq got the question with 100% of the respondents so much they had to retire a damn question they had been asking for about a decade before it... The people know what's up...Since when have we not realized that ESPN employs a bunch of dolts?
I hope that the Lakers do get rid of Kobe next year. Kobe will fade into oblivion. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO ANFERNEE HARDAWAY??? Rmember when Shaq left Orlando and all the ESPN IDIOTS said that FINALLY Hardaway will get to show WHY the Magic went to the Finals in teh first place. Well, Kobe will be the next Hardaway. Without Shaq, Kobe doesn't even make the All-Star team. And, Shaq will keep on competing for Championships.
Hardaway was a good player - not in the class of Kobe's talents but very good. He suffered through a series of injuries and was never the same.
The Lakers threepeated with Shaq, Kobe and 3 role players in the starting lineup. No way Kobe has those 3 rings without Shaq but Shaq could have done it with Carter, Tracy McGrady, Allen Iverson or Jason Kidd as the second superstar. Of those 4 only Kidd has the ability to play within a team concept and make his role players better. If Kobe goes to a bad team he will find himself in the same position that McGrady is in with the Magic. He will average over 30 ppg and his team will lose big time. The only way Kobe gets more rings without Shaq is if he teams up with Tim Duncan or posibly Kevin Garnett but I can't see Kobe leaving LA to sign with a small market team in San Antonio or Minneapolis. Of the mega market teams the Bulls and the Knicks need a lot more than a ball hog superstar to get back on the winning track. It wouldn't work in Philadelphia with only one basketball between Kobe and AI. The Dallas Mavericks are loaded with talent and Kobe might fit in with the other guard being the unselfish Steve Nash but the Mavs don't have a dominant big guy to sweep the boards so even with Kobe they would likely remain as the "almost there" team. Maybe the Houston Rockets would be the best fit. 7'6 Yao Ming will only get better and if Kobe and almost superstar Steve Francis could accept their roles and work together I could see Houston winning an NBA title with Kobe. If Kobe's only motivation is to win a title without Shaq the Spurs would be the best bet but then he would have to share the credit with Tim Duncan and the Spurs are Duncan's team as much as the Lakers are Shaq's team. As great as Kobe's talents are he will never be a Michael Jordan who can win big with another great player at the other guard position like Michael had with Scottie Pippin and an average big man and role players at the 3 and 4 positions. The Lakers should win the NBA this year and even without Kobe will be good enough to win next year as long as the Mailman and Gary Payton stay healthy and Phil Jackson stays on as coach. Since Malone and Payton signed for low dollars so that they could get a ring before they retire if Kobe left town the Lakers would have a lot of extra salary cap money to sign another superstar. Tracy McGrady will be a free agent after this season. With McGrady at the 2 guard the Lakers wouldn't lose a beat. My main interest is not so much as a Lakers fan but as a Shaq fan. If Shaq retired today he would be a first ballot Hall of Famer. It all depends upon whether he has the motivation to want to be considered the greatest big man in NBA history. With 3 NBA rings he already has one more than Wilt Chamberlain. Kareem has 6 and Bill Russell has 9. At the age of 32 its doubtful that Shaq will stick around long enough to equal Russell but as long as the Lakers maintain dominance he might end up equaling or surpassing Kareem. Russell made at most a couple of hundred grand a year in his later years. Great money for those times but not like the $$$$ they make today. Shaq probably makes as much or more PER GAME than Russell's best yearly salary. He is already worth more than the gross national products of a lot of small countries. How long can he maintain the motivation to bang bodies with the other big guys?
