The Lakers surely achieved greatness when they completed a three-peat during the Kobe Bryant-Shaquille O’Neal era. Not to forget, the Western Conference at the time was equally good, with Dirk Nowitzki leading the Mavericks, Tim Duncan for the Spurs, and Kevin Garnett for Minnesota. Before they achieved the three-peat, there was a cause of concern during the WCF, and the former Kings player explained how the matchup was so intense.

“The series before against Mavericks, I’ve hurt my ankle, and I was out. And I came back, I think I came back the fourth game of the series against the Lakers. But listen, I mean, playing against Kobe and Shaq, it was hard because both of them demanded double team.” Predrag ‘Peja’ Stojakovic spoke about the 2002 Finals game, and how the Lakers had a hard time beating the Kings, despite domination over other teams.

“It always make us scramble. Let’s say, we’re going to protect the paint. We’re going to double Shaq right away. And then we are running to shooters, then Kobe gets the ball. And then it was, but we had them, we had them.” The 3x All-Star was speaking to co-hosts and former NBA stars Quentin Richardson and Darius Miles. The entire series had a margin of less than 10 in every game, and the Kings had the Game 7 home advantage.

That is why Peja stated, “I mean, we could go back and forth, like, you know, this and that calls over there. I think we had the game 7 at home court. It was our opportunity, it was our year,” via Knuckleheads podcast. The game was close, as it needed overtime to determine the winner. Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant combined for 65 points in the game, as the Lakers won 112-106. But that did not keep opponents from architecting strategies to keep O’Neal caged.

Shaquille O’Neal hated the Hack-a-Shaq strategy

Despite his domination in the league, teams strategized a plan to contain the 7’1″ phenom. It was called ‘Hack-a-Shaq’, where the teams would foul Shaq, and he would end up shooting from the free throw line, which was not his strong suit. Recently on Byron Scott’s podcast, a 4x NBA Champion and former teammate of Shaquille O’Neal described Shaq’s reaction to the strategy.

“You know he hated that they had Hack-A-Shaq. He hated that the refs let people push on him ’cause he was so big.” The former player-turned-actor said on Fast Break. And 2 months ago, even Richard Jefferson explained the domination of O’Neal. “Shaq was a type of person that made you have to change the construction of your roster.”

As per RJ, teams would load up on Bigs so they could perform ‘Hack-a-Shaq.‘ Since one player would be in danger of fouling out, multiple Centers were part of the roster just to stop the Lakers legend. But the strategy did not work, as Shaquille O’Neal not only managed a three-peat of championships but also a three-peat of Finals MVP trophy.