No muzzle.
The Los Angeles Lakers squad of the early 2000s enjoyed a tremendous run as they won three straight NBA Titles. Shaquille O’Neal in his prime, mixed with a young Kobe Bryant, all under the tutelage of Phil Jackson propelled the franchise to unbelievable heights. For how well they played on the court, it was no secret that Bryant and O’Neal were at odds behind the scenes, throwing pot shots at each other in the media till this day.
With Shaq leaving L.A. and the zen master taking a brief hiatus from coaching, Jackson later returned as the head coach of the Lakers and attained to more championships with Bryant. Since their careers and names are almost synonymous with each other, it appeared that the relationship between Phil and Kobe was one of admiration and respect. As he is currently in the twilight of his career, Bryant recently sat down with GQ Magazine for an in depth interview and he revealed that he had a strong disdain, even “hate” towards Jackson early on in his career.
Bryant revealed that this anger towards Jackson is what pushed him to a “maniacal” level of competitiveness.
Why do you think Jackson would write such negative things about you? Was he trying to psychologically motivate you, or is he just kind of a weird, arrogant person?
So he would take shots at me in the press, and I understood he was doing that in order to ingratiate himself to Shaq. And since I knew what he was doing, I felt like that was an insult to my intelligence. I mean, I knew what he was doing. Why not just come to me and tell me that? Another thing was that I would go to him in confidence and talk about certain things, and he would then use those things to manipulate the media against me. And from that standpoint, I finally said, “No way. I’m not gonna deal with that anymore.” This was during our first run, during those first three championships. So when he’d come out in the press and say those things about me, I was finally like, “F**k it. I’m done with this guy. I’ll play for him and win championships, but I will have no interaction with him.” Yet at the same time, it drove me at a maniacal pace. Because either consciously or unconsciously, he put a tremendous amount of pressure on me to be efficient, and to be great, and to be great now.
When this was happening, did you actively dislike him?
Yeah. (pause) Yeah. I was like, “F**k him. I’m out here busting my ass. I’m killing myself.” And it became insulting. Because I chose to extend my deal with the Lakers to play with Shaquille O’ Neal and win championships. I knew what I could have done individually. I could have gone to another team and averaged 35 points a game. I could have gone anywhere and destroyed people. I gave that up to win championships. So it was infuriating to hear people say I was selfish. It was very, very maddening.
Kobe is keepin’ it 3 hunna – @Rocko_CNK
