NBA: Who is the best duo from each franchise’s history

Best duo from Los Angeles Lakers history: Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal

Here’s an interesting note: while researching this piece, I found out that Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal finished their tenure as Los Los Angeles Lakers teammates with the same combined WS/48 as Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain (.212).

There are some parallels between those early-2000s Lakers and the late-60s-early-70s outfit, but Shaq and Kobe’s two additional titles give them the nod here.

The seeds of this coalition were planted toward the tail-end of the Bulls dynasty. O’Neal, who spent his first four seasons with the Magic, grew tired of the Orlando media and fanbase scrutinizing every aspect of his life and skedaddled to L.A. in 1996 (you know, because the bigger markets are always easier to handle), the same year in which the Lakers traded for high school standout Bryant during the NBA Draft.

A couple of years later, Bryant — who developed his flashy promise into a good Michael Jordan impersonation — and O’Neal became a Western Conference powerhouse under Phil Jackson’s tutelage. You know, the same Phil Jackson who coached the Bulls to those six NBA titles.

With Shaq and Kobe leading the way, the Lakers fended off some stout competition out West — including the San Antonio Spurs, Sacramento Kings, and Portland Trail Blazers — winning three straight championships between 2000-02.

Of course, we all know the Shaq/Kobe era ended in the messiest manner possible, which was capped off with a five-game loss to the underdog Detroit Pistons in the 2004 Finals. But the peaks were about as high as an NBA team could get.