Shaquille O’Neal does not rank his own duo anywhere but at the top.
The Hall of Fame center used his latest appearance on the Free Range Podcast to put his Los Angeles Lakers partnership with Kobe Bryant ahead of both the Jordan-Pippen Bulls and the Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Lakers, in comments picked up by BasketNews.
“There will be a bunch of Mike’s and Scottie’s, Magic and Kareem, but there will never be another effective Kobe and Shaq and I like that,” O’Neal told the podcast, as quoted by BasketNews.
He described the pairing as the most dominant, enigmatic and controversial one-two punch the league has produced, one he said can never be duplicated.
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Three straight Finals MVPs for O’Neal
The on-court case for the ranking is the Lakers’ three-peat of 2000, 2001 and 2002.
Los Angeles beat the Indiana Pacers in six games in 2000, saw off the Philadelphia 76ers in five in 2001 and swept the New Jersey Nets in 2002 to complete the fifth three-peat in NBA history. O’Neal was Finals MVP every year, making him the only player besides Jordan to win the award in three consecutive Finals.
What the other two duos won
The pairings O’Neal brushed past won more silverware than he and Bryant did.
Jordan and Pippen anchored two Bulls three-peats and six championships in the 1990s, lifting the trophy in 1991, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997 and 1998, with Jordan taking Finals MVP every time.
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Johnson and Abdul-Jabbar fronted the Showtime Lakers, who won five championships in the 1980s and reached eight Finals in the decade, with titles in 1980, 1982, 1985, 1987 and 1988.
Why the Lakers duo stopped at three
O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in 2004, and on the podcast he pushed back on the idea that he and Bryant could not coexist.
“I’m not dumb. I know I got 3 in a row because of him. He knew he got 3 in a row because of me. We never disrespected each other. People think I left because we were fighting. No, I left because they wanted to pay the younger guy more than me,” he said on the podcast.
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