Lakers Legend Claimed He Rescued Kobe Bryant From an “Annihilation” by Shaquille O’Neal’s Punch

Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant may be the greatest duo to ever play, but they did have their own share of problems. Even though they won 3 championships together, they did not get along with each other and their feud was very well documented. At one point, they even came to blows in a practice game. Apparently, Kobe was almost destroyed by Shaq in one such tussle, but one of his teammates came to his rescue.

It was 1998, there was no basketball to be played due to the lockout. The Lakers were practicing, and Kobe and Shaq were going at it. Shaq was known to call iffy fouls at practice, and Kobe didn’t like that.

At one point, the argument went from fouls to whose team it was. Both of them were claiming that the Lakers were their team and they squared up. The other players and personnel tried to get in between, but it was already too late as they start throwing hands.

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Lakers teammates saved Kobe Bryant from Shaquille O’Neal

Olden Polynice, is a 15-year veteran from Haiti who was playing for the Lakers at that time. He recalled what happened in practice that day. He said, ” I don’t know if I saved his life, but I save him from harm. That was between he (Kobe) and Shaquille O’Neal… I was the guy that stopped the punch, basically. That would have pretty much annihilated Kobe if it had landed.”

“They get into an argument… It’s getting real serious… And then they square up. And I’m like, come on guys, break it up… Shaquille reeled back and threw it and I grabbed him and part of the punch hit me right here and then the rest followed through on Kobe.”

Olden says he was scared to let Shaq go cause he felt that he would have hurt Kobe. He says that if that punch had landed, Kobe Bryant may not have been himself and that punch was meant for damage.

Olden is a 7-foot center, and he was finding it difficult to hold down Shaq. Chiefly, if he wasn’t there that day, there was no telling what could have happened. But luckily for us, the big man was there, and he broke up the fight. Kobe and Shaq would later go on to win three titles in a row.

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