Former Miami Heat star Dwyane Wade recalled how Shaquille O’Neal called a players-only meeting early in his first season with Miami because the team had nearly the same record as Kobe Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers.
According to Wade, O’Neal was determined to outperform his former team following his departure from Los Angeles in 2004. Although Wade was not familiar with all the details of the disagreement between O’Neal and Bryant, he understood his teammate’s motivation.
“Yeah, because I didn’t really know about the beef, right? The internal beef that people talk about. I still don’t know. Shaq and I didn’t talk a lot about that. That wasn’t our relationship. But he wanted to be first, though. It was no secret. Kobe can’t get a ring before me. It was no secret in Miami. We all knew.”
Wade explained that the situation became particularly noticeable approximately 16 games into the season, when Miami had a 10–6 record and the Lakers were performing at a similar level.
O’Neal was unhappy with the comparison and gathered his teammates to address their performance.
“I remember we were 16 games into the first season, right? Miami Heat, 10–6. Los Angeles Lakers, maybe either 10–6 or 9–7. Fact-check me. We had a meeting led by Shaq. He went the fuck off because we had the same record as the Lakers at that time.”
Wade said the meeting had an immediate impact on Miami, which responded with a series of victories and moved toward the top of the NBA standings.
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“You know what we did? We went on a 12-game winning streak. We lost one or two, then went on a 10-game winning streak. We ended up having the best record in the league for a long time. But he didn’t want to be at the same pace as the Lakers. He didn’t come here to be average. He demanded something out of us that pushed us and helped us win that championship.”
Miami finished O’Neal’s first season with a 59–23 record and reached the Eastern Conference Finals. The Heat went on to win the NBA championship in 2006, giving O’Neal his fourth title and Wade his first.
During the conversation, Shannon Sharpe asked Wade about O’Neal’s reaction to winning another championship before Bryant.
Shannon Sharpe: “How excited was he to get that ring before Kobe?”
Dwyane Wade: “You heard his diss track.”
O’Neal won his fourth championship with Miami in 2006, while Bryant later secured his fourth and fifth titles with the Lakers in 2009 and 2010.
