Lakers News: Kobe Bryant's Family Requested Upcoming Shaquille O'Neal Show Cut Back On Kobe Bryant

Why?

Los Angeles Lakers legend Shaquille O'Neal has a new four-part career-spanning documentary series, appropriately titled "Shaq," set to debut on HBO this Wednesday, November 23.

As part of the rollout for the show, director Robert Alexander spoke with Rich Eisen on his YouTube/Peacock/NBC Sports program "The Rich Eisen Show."

Alexander supplied some fascinating behind-the-scenes drama involving O'Neal's most infamous teammate, fellow Lakers all-timer Kobe Bryant.

"I think there's a really strong amount of Kobe," Alexander said. "There's two sides to it. One is that, me and Shaq had a pretty honest conversation about Kobe not being with us anymore, feeling like what he went through with Kobe was, in one instance, what he felt personally... and then there's this whole world of how the outside world holds their story. And how... both Shaq and Kobe utilized the media to shape narratives. But Shaq made it very clear to me, he's like, 'Kobe's not with us anymore, and this is 20 years ago, and there's a lot more to not only our relationship but my experience as a basketball player, that I want to make sure has weight.' And then me as a filmmaker, it was also important for me to say, 'I approach this as honest as possible.'" 

"But to be transparent, we also got to a point where we had a certain amount of their story in the film," Alexander continued. "Kobe's family essentially requested that we reduce the amount of Kobe we have in the film."

"Why?" Rich Eisen quite reasonably asked.

"I'm not totally sure, but out of respect for their wishes we did it, we went ahead and we complied... So I'm very proud of what we ended up with, as far as the amount of Kobe content that we have, that relates to Shaq's story, but at the end of the day it's a Shaq film."

It's common knowledge that Bryant and O'Neal did not get along at all by the end of their Lakers tenure, which is the main reason then-team owner Dr. Jerry Buss ultimately signed off on a deal to ship O'Neal out to the Miami Heat in the 2004 offseason. How much of their fairly adversarial dynamic will remain showcased in this new docuseries remains to be seen.

O'Neal, a 15-time All-Star center, and Bryant, an 18-time All-Star shooting guard, were teammates from 1996-2004. The dynamic duo won three straight titles together from 2000-2002, and went to a fourth NBA Finals in 2004. Bryant passed away in a helicopter accident in 2020.