From the moment LeBron James came to the Los Angeles Lakers in 2018, some fans of the team disliked him and even felt he was encroaching on the territory of Kobe Bryant, who had retired just two years earlier. James would lead the Lakers to the NBA championship in 2020 just after they had missed the playoffs in six straight seasons, but despite sticking around for eight years, he was never exactly beloved the way other franchise greats were.
Shaquille O'Neal has been there and done that. Lakers fans fell in love with him when he arrived in 1996, but once Bryant emerged as a superstar a few years later, fans fell harder for him and favored him over O'Neal. O'Neal, of course, requested to be traded in 2004 and was sent to the Miami Heat amidst
a feud between him and the legendary guard, and he spent quite a bit of time talking trash about Bryant following his exit.
During an appearance on SiriusXM NBA Radio, O'Neal explained how, as a result, he can understand why Lakers fans never fully embraced James.
"They didn't love me; they loved Kobe. They didn't love me. Listen, this is what we call B.O.B brother, the business of basketball. When they get like me, when I'm in charge, I'm a difficult man to deal with. The thing has to be done my way, and sometimes people don't agree with that, so when you get you up out of there... I can kinda understand both sides."
O'Neal eventually reconciled with Bryant and the Lakers, and he got his No. 34 jersey retired in 2013. James' exit this summer was painless and relatively quiet, and he likely did the franchise a favor by letting it know through Rich Paul, his longtime agent, that he was leaving just hours before free agency officially opened on June 30.
He took over three weeks to eventually decide which team he would sign with in free agency. James is now a member of a Philadelphia 76ers team that was already stacked without him, and it appears that the Philly sports scene may be embracing him the way Southern California never did.
This article originally appeared on LeBron Wire: Shaquille O'Neal on why Lakers fans didn't love him or LeBron James
