Obviously, Kobe did a gigantic heavy-lifting alongside Shaq after 1999-00 season. Kobe was a top 3 player in NBA and the Kobe-Shaq relationship was more like a 1a and 1b situation. They were almost on equal footing.

Having that said, is narrative of “Kobe Bryant was carried by MVP Shaq” still true even almost 25 years later. MVP Shaq almost single-handedly brought Lakers’ 1st Championship for years and should’ve got a uanimous MVP. The likes of Ray Allen, Vince Carter, T-Mac, Michael Redd, Allen Iverson etc. could’ve replaces Kobe that season and Lakers probably would still have won 2000 NBA Championship because of Shaq’s dominance.

  • IHateYouKidsBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    All the way through carried. We saw what Kobe did w/o Shaq: nothin. He got a Superteam won two more times, and w/o. Superteam never came close the competing again

  • referee-superfanBEnglish
    1·
    10 months ago

    Shaq was clearly better but Kobe was always good. I’m trying to think of a good comparison, best I can think of is Jokic/Murray. But Kobe was better then Murray and Shaq was better then Jokic.