After inking a seven year, $121 million deal with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1996, Shaquille O’Neal with the help of Kobe Bryant lead his new team to three consecutive NBA titles from 2000-2002.

Laker bliss didn’t last long. In 2003, the Lakers were bounced out of the playoffs by the San Antonio. The Lakers regrouped and made it to the Finals in ‘04, where they lost to the overachieving Detroit Pistons in five games.

In the summer of ‘04, management decided to break up the dynamic duo of Shaq and Kobe. Shaq and Kobe had been feuding and Laker management decided to rebuild the team around the much-younger Bryant.

O’Neal was traded to the Miami Heat in exchange for Caron Butler, Lamar Odom, Brian Grant, and future first-round draft pick (Jordan Farmar).

Without Shaq, the Lakers missed the playoffs in ‘05, suffered first-round exits in ‘06 and ‘07, lost in the finals in ‘08, and then won the championshipe in ‘09.

The Lakers did not turn into a perennial lottery team by trading O’Neal, but just imagine what may have happened if the deal had never went down.

What if Shaq and Kobe could have worked out their differences and had remained the best of friends or at least cordial with each other? What if head coach Phil Jackson didn’t take a one-year leave?

Just how many more championships could they have won together? At least two or three.

I would have loved to watch Shaq and Kobe switch roles. Shaq would have become Kobe’s superstar sidekick, much like he did in Miami with Dwyane Wade.

Speaking of Dwayne Wade. D-Wade he might have been ringless today if he had never joined forces with Shaq. But then again, the Heat could have packaged Odom, Butler, and Grant and acquired another star that Wade could have teamed with to win a title.

You never know.

It is unclear what role players may have been brought in to surround the Kobe-Shaq duo.

However, it would have been interesting to see Karl Malone and Gary Payton stick around for at least another year. Malone might have retired with a championship and Payton might have gotten his ring in LA instead of Miami.

If Shaq would have stayed in LA, I suspect the Lakers would have signed fairly inexpensive veterans like Alonzo Mourning, who backed up Shaq in Miami, Michael Finley and Antonio McDyess.

If the Lakers hadn’t traded Shaq, they likely would have owned a lower pick in the ‘05 draft meaning they could have taken either Danny Granger, Nate Robinson or David Lee instead of Andrew Bynum.

A trio of Kobe, Shaq, and Granger wouldn’t have quite been Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy, but it would have led the Lakers to tons of victories.

Does it matter who the role players would have been? The Lakers won three titles with a non-All-Star supporting cast that included guys like Derek Fisher, Brian Shaw, and Rick Fox. As long as they had a healthy Shaq and Kobe, the Lakers could have won with a bunch of middle school kids filling in as the role players.

Yes, the Lakers may have hung a few more championship banners in Staples Center if Shaq was never sent packing, but on the other hand, it could have turned out to be a total disaster.

We will never know what may have happened.

- John A. Roberts

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