Things were obviously a mess for the Lakers around 2003 when the storied Kobe Bryant/Shaquille O’Neal rivalry was at its peak and nearing its end. Kareem Rush spent his first two seasons in the NBA with the Lakers in the final two years of the Kobe/Shaq era, right in the middle of the storm.
Talking with Rick Mahorn and Tom Byrne on NBA Sirius XM Radio, Rush shared how Kobe and Shaq’s feud impacted the team at the time:
“Yeah, it was like a real issue. We actually had like a separation of the team. We had a big man alliance and a guard alliance. I had to pick Kobe’s side.”
You always have small factions on sports teams. People group together based on personalities and social interests. But the alliances Rush speaks of weren’t chosen that way. It’s actually not uncommon for guards to stick with guards and bigs stick with the bigs. You work out together and thus spend more time together anyway. In this case, Rush and his teammates were like kids being forced to choose which parent to stay with.
“Shaq got three Finals MVPs and I think Kobe wanted his, so it didn’t work out for us. We definitely had talent to win more than three titles.”
Rush’s reminiscing follows up from Shaq’s podcast episode featuring Kobe this week where the two spoke candidly about their storied feud during that time.
Listen to Rush’s segment from Sirius XM below.
