Shaquille O'Neal wasn't mad when Kobe Bryant won the 2009 NBA championship without him, giving both superstars four rings.
Shaq, however, said he was livid when Bryant surpassed him with his fifth NBA championship in 2010, according to The Big Podcast With Shaq with Bryant as his guest.
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"Oh, I was pissed," O'Neal said to co-host John Kincaid when asked about watching on television as Bryant celebrated his fifth title. "I got four first, right? So then I threw a little jab., and then he had a couple years. And then they somehow got Pau Gasol and (Andrew) Bynum and then they got four and I was like, 'OK, we're tied; I'm cool for awhile.'"
"Then he gets number five, and the reporter (asks): 'You feel good that you got one more than Shaq?' And Kobe was, 'Yeah, I feel good I got one more than Shaq.!' Awl, sh--! They got me."
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When asked whether he was happy for O'Neal for winning with the Heat in 2006 to give him one more ring, Bryant said he wasn't as angry.
"Honestly, yeah I did (feel good for O'Neal)," Bryant said, "because it was going to push me to win more. ... When I got to five, I couldn't help turning the knife a little bit."
Other tidbits to come out of the interview between Lakers superstars:
Both believed that the 2000-01 team was their best team. That team struggled a bit through the regular season before winning the last eight games to win the Pacific Division with a 56-26 record.
Los Angeles then won 11 straight playoff games before Philadelphia's Allen Iverson scored 48 points in Game 1 of the finals to lead the 76ers to the 107-101 upset before the Lakers won the next four to win their second straight title.
The most fun they had was the first title run in 1999-2000. O'Neal said he fouled out in Game 4 of the finals against the Pacers and Bryant nodded at him as if to say, "I got your back" and led the Lakers to a 120-118 win that gave LA a 3-1 series lead. The Lakers went on to win the series 4-2.
Neither thought coach Phil Jackson played favorites between the two. They both agreed that forward Robert Horry was Jackson's whipping boy, which could explain Horry's animosity when he left LA for the San Antonio Spurs after the 2002-03 season.
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