Brendan Haywood on How He Prepared for Prime Shaquille O’Neal
It’s not what you think.
In the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Lakers were the scariest team to face.
They had a prime Shaquille O’Neal and a young and hungry Kobe Bryant.
Shaq was out there bodying everyone in the post. If he caught the ball down low, you’re done for -there was nothing the defender could do.
Shaq was just too big and too strong.
As for Kobe, he was vying for GOAT status.
So, he played as hard as he could every night on the hardwood. He’d dunk on you and then run back and put the pressure on your team’s best player, while talking smack and playing psychological games.
These two dominated the NBA for years; it seemed like there was nothing that could be done to stop them.
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Now, back to the story…
Regardless, their opponents did try. And one strategy that then-Washington Wizards’ center Brendan Haywood implemented was something that should have been common sense, but wasn’t.
On an episode of the Run Your Race podcast, Haywood said he “prepped” for Shaq by getting enough rest.
“If you’re playing against Shaq, don’t go out the night before. Pack a lunch. Hey, I didn’t have no fun in L.A. until he left. You know, they be like, ‘We going out tonight.’ I’m like, “Yeah, I’ll be in my room. I’m about to watch a movie. I got Shaq tomorrow.’”
Haywood then gave a serious answer.
“But the biggest thing was you just had to try to compete from a physical standpoint as far as you had to outwork him. Like, ‘Man, I can’t let him get to this spot on the court. Or, I got to try to bump him a little bit earlier.’”
Haywood also said that during this time (2001-03), Micahel Jordan was on the Wizards with him and Kobe often tried to prove to Jordan that he was a great player as well.
This led to Kobe hogging the ball and not involving Shaq in plays.
“The great thing about that time was I had MJ on the team. So, Kobe was trying to prove to MJ who he was. So, a lot of the times, Shaq wouldn’t get the ball like that-like that.”
Conclusion
In the 1999-00 season, the L.A. Lakers won 67 games and thus ushered in the Kobe-and-Shaq Era.
They ran the NBA for 5 seasons from 1999 to 2004 and had multiple 50-plus win seasons. They also won 3 consecutive NBA championships in this period.
Kobe averaged 26 points, 6 rebounds, 5 assists and 1.7 steals during this time.
As for Shaq, he won one MVP Award, three Finals’ MVP Awards and averaged 27 points, 12 rebounds, 3.3 assists and 2.6 blocks.
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