An Oral History of the 2003-2004 Los Angeles Lakers, the First Super Team

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

" There was no way they could stop me in the pick-and-roll, because I was just going to bring Shaq out on the perimeter and wear him down, and if he didn’t step out, I would have open jump shots all series. And two, Rip, I was going to run Rip all over the place and every play that I called, it was going to be him coming off Shaq’s side."

was VERY suspect on D

they were spamming that curl screen on some SNK boss shyt for real...rip was such a beast from 03-06

 

[No_bammer_weed]

we can finally end the narrative that Kobe forced Shaq out

Really? Quotes say the opposite from the principle players own mouths...

The Lakers made it clear that re-signing Bryant was their No. 1 objective

Jeanie Buss: Shaq’s agreement had been grandfathered into that collective bargaining agreement so he could be paid more than anybody else. He wanted an extension that my father wasn’t willing to agree to, and their disagreement was only about money and business.

Kobe Bryant: I wasn’t going to play with Shaq anymore after that. That just wasn’t going to happen. Things he had said, criticism from the media in saying I can’t win without him. Look, I put that individual s--t aside to win championships and now I’m getting criticized for it. Now I’m going to show you f--ks what I can do on my own. So that challenge, I was going to answer that challenge no matter what—whether I was going to stay in L.A. or go somewhere else, I was going to answer that challenge.

Kobe confirmed that he wasnt interested in playing with shaq at all, and if the lakers didnt get rid of him he was out. The lakers publicly answered who they sided with. From Kobe's own mouth he's telling you he pushed shaq out, lol. What you talking about?

 

[BrothaZay]

Is it just me or does Chauncey Billups always get annoying af when talking about this series? Not that im a bitter laker fan but dude just swear up and down that pistons were some kind of dynasty and they werent worried about the lakers at all

 

[O.T.I.S.]

It wasn'

I brought this up when people were crying about Lebron going to Miami. People pretended like it wasn't the same thing

It wasn't



GP and Karl were out of their primes and trying to win a ring before they rode off into the sunset while Lebron left his finals team to go to Miami with another perennial all-star with another one already there... all in their primes


Then he did it in arguably the weaker conference



And to top it off, he did it again this year

 

[O.T.I.S.]

Great thread btw

 

[BrothaZay]

Still think a focused Lakers team could have beat them thats just my opinion tho. You have two players who could drop 40 a night easy, in their prime.

 

[Regular_P]

I think we would've beaten the Pistons in 6 with a healthy Karl Malone.

We were an average team at best without him and a dominant one with him.

With Malone were 33 - 9 (.785)
Without Malone 23 - 17 (.575)

He was the glue of that team and the buffer between Kobe and Shaq. Kobe wouldn't have gone off the rails with Malone on the court.

 

[Ed MOTHEREFFING G]

Is it just me or does Chauncey Billups always get annoying af when talking about this series? Not that im a bitter laker fan but dude just swear up and down that pistons were some kind of dynasty and they werent worried about the lakers at all

they shytted on every nba team all season, holding teams to 65 pts and stuff. they faced the lakers twice and beat em already during the season.

they WERE CONFIDENT period

 

[Dwight Howard]

Really? Quotes say the opposite from the principle players own mouths...







Kobe confirmed that he wasnt interested in playing with shaq at all, and if the lakers didnt get rid of him he was out. The lakers publicly answered who they sided with. From Kobe's own mouth he's telling you he pushed shaq out, lol. What you talking about?

Shaq demanded a trade. That other stuff is hypothetical. Yea Kobe would have wanted to do it on his own but Shaq demanded a trade before the decision too "choose Kobe over Shaq" could even be made official. The Lakers werent gonna cut Shaq

 

[Hersh]

the pistons that year

dream crushers...ask reggie

 

[THE K-MAN]

That team on NBA2k was just


Shut just wasn't fair

I remember beating a nikka by 70

We still laugh about it til this day

 

[PTBG]

On the real, I didn't know how good Mailman was on defense until he joined. He was able to still able to defend the pick n roll, & he shut down MVP KG & Prime Duncan in the playoffs. This Lakers team were the biggest name super team, but that 1997-98 Lakers team in hindsight from top to bottom should have been when the dynasty started & should have been a super team. Shaq, young Bean, Eddie Jones, Nick Tha Kid, Campbell, Foxx, Horry, and young Fisher. Bumass Del Harris. Finals should have been Bulls vs. Lakers in 98 instead, Lakers could have had 5, Phil should have left that Bulls management dump sooner.

 

[Regular_P]

I remember Rip and Billups hitting seemingly every shot they took in the Finals. You'd watch hoping they'd miss a couple so LA could go on a run and it just never happened. They never missed two in a row all series.

They had to rotate Kobe between Rip and Billups because nobody else on the team could cover them. Whoever he wasn't guarding was always going off.

 

[ALonelyDad]

it's still amazing they made the finals will all that shyt going on.

 

[PTBG]

I remember Rip and Billups hitting seemingly every shot they took in the Finals. You'd watch hoping they'd miss a couple so LA could go on a run and it just never happened. They never missed two in a row all series.

They had to rotate Kobe between Rip and Billups because nobody else on the team could cover them. Whoever he wasn't guarding was always going off.

Chauncey was great, but even during the Lakers 3-peat, every PG laced up the Lakers. Lakers have always been terrible for some reason against PG's come playoff time, even during the Showtime years too.