Biographer Roland Lazenby Talks Kobe Bryant In Exclusive LSL Interview

In your book, ESPN’s JA Adande said he thinks the Lakers left a title on the table with Kobe and Shaq when they broke them up. Do you agree with that sentiment? Or do you think it had to end the way it did?

Well, I think they left a title on the table — maybe a couple. Phil Jackson was not high on having Jerry West continuing his involvement. West, who had basically created the team by acquiring both Kobe and Shaq. And when I sat down to talk to him about it when he was leaving the Lakers, Shaquille told me that he no longer had anyone with the Lakers he could trust. That he trusted Jerry West but Jerry West was gone. And I think that was the sad thing. The person with which Shaq and Kobe could agree was Jerry West. They both had tremendous regard for him, and West struggled to get them to get along better.

But once West left the Lakers after the 2000 championship, the opportunity for them to get along better disappeared. It was the one thing they agreed on, the power and importance of Jerry West, and it was the one thing they could find common ground. And certainly Jerry West and Phil Jackson weren’t great to get along, but if they had found a way, it might have changed the course and provided that championship that they all bear responsibility for, that they all left on the table.

How did Kobe and Phil find a working relationship during their second stint together? Because if you went up to someone who followed the NBA after the ’04 season, after Phil’s book came out where he goes off on Kobe, you would think they’d never even be able to talk to each other again. How did they win two more titles together?

There had to be some assurances made, that Phil wasn’t going to pull those kind of tricks anymore. As Charley Rosen explained to me for the book, some of their getting along seemed to be for public relations sake, but a fair amount of it was genuine. Above all of his issues with Kobe, Jackson really respected him as a competitor — that his competitive spirit was great and was a huge factor. Phil probably could’ve gotten away with trades that meant he didn’t have to coach Kobe anymore, but given the opportunity for those, Phil declined them.

One in particular was a trade for Grant Hill. Before he became injured he was still considered a top player. But Phil didn’t pull the trigger on that or really push it, because he really loved Kobe’s competitive nature. He didn’t love trying to rope it in, but he did love having a player with that level of drive.