Throughout the rich history of the NBA, there have been numerous what ifs, ranging from, “What if Bill Russell was selected first overall?” to “What if Derrick Rose never got injured?” One such entry is “What if Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal never split up with the Los Angeles Lakers?”

Lakers owner Jeanie Buss set the record straight in her interview on the “All The Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. In the said talk, Buss admitted the real reason behind the split of the two dominant superstars.

“[Shaq] wanted an amount of money that was legal under the CBA but it wasn’t what my Dad wanted to pay him,” Buss said. “And so it came to the point where the decision was made to trade Shaq. A lot of people want to put that blame on Kobe. It wasn’t. It was purely a money situation.”

If the world were black and white, then that explanation resolves everything, but the world is more complicated than that. That iteration of the Lakers had many complexities revolving around Bryant, O'Neal, and head coach Phil Jackson, per Kurt Helin of NBC Sports.  

Reports during this period stated that Shaquille O'Neal and the Lakers were $9 million apart in their contract negotiations. Perhaps, if Los Angeles had beaten the Detroit Pistons in the 2004 finals, things would have been different? This is why there is weight in the adage that winning fixes everything.

Despite this, there were further complications. Kobe Bryant was looking to be traded to the Chicago Bulls. Eventually, Los Angeles made the right choice in valuing upside as they went with Kobe and traded O'Neal.