Feuding Wins Championships

In the latest chapter of the Shaq-Kobe insult-a-thon, Shaquille O’Neal says the Los Angeles Lakers are “my team,” while Kobe Bryant chides Shaq for his “childlike selfishness” and for being “fat.” In the midst of an earlier tiff, Joshua Green wrote in March 2001 that teammates who fight together often win together. “The ongoing feud between the Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal has filled column inches in sports pages and airtime on talk radio. But there’s one thing it hasn’t done: hurt the Lakers.” The Lakers did go on to win the 2001 NBA championship, the second of their three consecutive titles.