Why do y'all always bring up Finals talk with Shaq? They don't get to the Finals without Kobe putting in that work early on. Hell, the only reason they beat the Jailblazers was because Kobe put that team on his back. Shaq was guarding nobody in the West, Kobe was tryna do everything.
But all of this new era talk about not winning Rings. The truth is that Shaq never ran into someone like MJ, and the closest was Dream, but Shaq was still East. Chuck, Ewing, Stockton & Malone, legacies are cemented.
Did y'all even watch those Suns vs Bulls Finals? chuck played his a$$ off, it was KJ that struggled. He was shooting horribly and couldn't guard MJ. MJ averaged like 40 on him. Even Thunder Dan was doing his thing. But you can't even count coke-head Richard Dumas, even though he played well. They needed Ced Ceballos to win.