Kobe Bryant is no stranger to estranged relationships and high pressure situations. His tenure with Shaquille O’Neal at the Lakers from 1996 to 2004 proved difficult but ultimately rewarding for the young Bryant who was blessed with 3 championships with one of history’s most dominant centers. His strained relationship with Shaq has been written to death, talked about in newspapers and television programs and analyzed online to the point where we wondered how Bryant would ever deal with the injection of another superstar into a team he, and the city of Los Angeles, knows belongs to him. Kobe has long said that he and Shaq’s relationship was so discordant that it got to the point where the two couldn’t stand to be in the same room together and while Championships resulted, it would be remiss of Bryant to imagine it happening again. Chemistry is more important in today’s game than it ever has been, and he knows it. While there is not a requirement that teams and players become best friends, there undoubtedly needs to be a high level of trust and personality that can be transferred from training, to the locker rooms and eventually to the court. This is something that has plagued the new-look, super team that is the 2013 Los Angeles Lakers and more to the point, Kobe Bryant and their new superstar center Dwight Howard but now, it seems as though things may be changing for the better.
