Gilbert Arenas is a self-described fan of Kobe Bryant, but he turned some heads when he recently claimed that the Los Angeles Lakers legend was a sidekick to Shaquille O’Neal when the two players won three championships with the storied franchise.
"3 of his championships [Kobe] was the sidekick… Shaq was the dominant force."
Is Gil trippin' for saying Kobe was Robin to Shaq's Batman during the Lakers dynasty 🤔 pic.twitter.com/nhCkdJRClE
— Gilbert Arenas (@GilsArenaShow) December 18, 2024
Ron Harper was teammates with Bryant and O’Neal during the tail end of his NBA career, and he isn’t a fan of the narrative that the former was a sidekick to the latter.
He even went so far as to call the assertion “BS” in a post on social media. Harper didn’t necessarily respond specifically to Arenas’ comments but made his thoughts known when he encountered the topic on X.
Stop with the BS KOBE wasn’t a side kick for sure!!!!
— Ron Harper (@HARPER04_5) December 20, 2024
Harper was a member of the Lakers for the first two years of the team’s three-peat in the early 2000s. He played a large role for Los Angeles during its title run in the 2000 NBA Playoffs, as he started every one of the Lakers’ 23 postseason games and averaged 8.6 points, 3.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.0 steal per contest.
The next season, he played a smaller role in the playoffs, but he was still along for the ride as L.A. captured another ring. It gave Harper his fifth NBA championship overall.
In Arenas’ defense, O’Neal certainly received more accolades than Bryant did during their time as teammates. During their eight seasons together, O’Neal earned one league MVP award and three Finals MVP awards. Since Arenas’ argument seems to center around those three titles specifically, it can’t be ignored that O’Neal won Finals MVP honors each time.
But it’s worth noting that by the time O’Neal was nearing the end of his time in Los Angeles, Bryant was arguably the Lakers’ best player. He averaged more points per game than O’Neal did in the 2002-03 and 2003-04 seasons and also finished ahead of O’Neal in MVP voting in each of those seasons.
Bryant actually averaged at least 30 points per game for the first time of his pro career in the 2002-03 campaign. He didn’t miss a single one of the Lakers’ 82 regular-season contests and also shot 45.1 percent from the field and 38.3 percent from 3-point range.
Of course, Bryant went on to have some of the more prolific scoring seasons in NBA history after O’Neal departed the Lakers.
