CLEVELAND: Kobe Bryant’s farewell appearance at Quicken Loans Arena Wednesday night included an unexpected and seemingly incongruous lesson for the Cavaliers.
To hear the 18-time All-Star from the Los Angeles Lakers tell it, the fit-in, fit-out talk between LeBron James and Kevin Love last season was misguided. Yes, there has to be trust as the Cavs’ Big Three of James, Love and Kyrie Irving work to define their roles and maximize their talents as they try to deliver the city its long-awaited championship.
But spending too much time trying to make the pieces fit may be wasted effort.
Bryant was asked about his volatile eight years playing with Lakers center Shaquille O’Neal that produced three consecutive NBA titles starting in 2000 and how it might apply to James and Love. In a podcast last August, O’Neal deemed it a “work beef,” even as he admitted the two “alpha males” nearly got into a fistfight in 1999.
Bryant knew his answer would be surprising.
“It sounds strange, but you can’t try to make the pieces fit,” Bryant said. “You can’t compromise to make pieces fit. That probably goes against anything you’ve ever heard.
“The reason Shaq and I figured out how to make it work is because neither one of us had compromise. Because of that, we had this incredible storm and through that storm we were able to figure out how to make pieces fit.”
Bryant said their work confrontations were necessary as they learned how to play together when O’Neal signed as a free agent with the Lakers in July 1996, Bryant’s rookie season.
“If you come out and say, ‘I’m going to step back and do this, he’s going to step back and do that,’ you’re not going to figure anything out,” Bryant said. “You’re going to have conflict. You’re going to have confrontation. You’re going to have uncomfortable times, but through those uncomfortable times you’ll really figure out how to play and jell together.
“It’s a very difficult process to go through, but it’s one that’s extremely necessary.”
Presumably O’Neal and Bryant never sat down at a swimming pool at a posh resort and aired their grievances as Love and James did last summer. A May 2015 story by Bleacher Report said teammate Brian Shaw had to separate O’Neal and Bryant before the 2003-04 season when O’Neal said he wanted to “murder” Bryant.
But with O’Neal given a push from hall of famer Bill Russell, he made peace with Bryant before a Martin Luther King Jr. Day game in 2006, when O’Neal was in his second year with the Miami Heat. In the aforementioned podcast, O’Neal said, “Locker room disagreement is not a real-life thing.”
Cavalier resolution
Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, a former Lakers point guard who played on their 2000 and ’01 title teams, witnessed the Shaq-Kobe feud and understood what Bryant meant Wednesday.
“If you want to be great, you can’t be afraid of confrontation,” Lue said. “If you believe in what you believe in and it’s the right things, you can’t stray away from that because of something somebody else wants to do.”
While Bryant may not have said as much to Love or James, he said he talks “off and on” with Irving. Some of their conversations have ventured into team dynamics.
“What he has to do is just focus on being himself,” Bryant said of Irving. “I think it’s very hard because you’re always trying to balance group dynamics with LeBron and Kevin and it’s important for them to figure out how all three of them can play at their highest level of potential. I think he struggles with that a little bit.”
In his 20th season and 37 years old, Bryant sees himself as a “grandfather” to Lakers rookie D’Angelo Russell of Ohio State. But perhaps more than Bryant’s teammates can benefit from his advice.
Uncle Drew (aka Irving) is already learning from “Grandfather Kobe.” Perhaps Bryant’s lessons will help more Cavs players realize they don’t always have to get along to play along and deliver a championship.
Marla Ridenour can be reached at mridenour@thebeaconjournal.com. Read her blog at www.ohio.com/marla. Follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MRidenourABJ.