The Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal pairing with the Los Angeles Lakers will forever go down in history as one of the greatest duos in the history of the sport. To say that these two were dominant in their time together as teammates would be a complete understatement.
Another duo that has recently emerged as a partnership that is set out to terrorize the league in the years to come (hopefully) is Joel Embiid and James Harden of the Sixers. These two superstars recently linked up to form a deadly partnership in Philly which has resulted in five wins out of five games during their time together on the court. The sample size is undeniably small and it's way too early to tell if these two will become one of the greatest duos of all time, but what cannot be denied is that the potential is there.
Just don't say that to Shaq right now because the Lakers legend is having absolutely none of it.
For some context, it was actually Kendrick Perkins who was one of the first personalities to bring up the comparison. The former NBA champ turned ESPN analyst recently came out with a bold claim saying that in his mind, the Harden and Embiid duo in Philly is the new Kobe and Shaq.
“[Harden] just didn't want to be [in Brooklyn],” Perkins declared (h/t Christopher Eluemuno of Essentially Sports). “He didn't want to be in their culture. Now, you add James Harden with the big Embiid, we could be possibly looking at the next version of Kobe and Shaq. But Philly won this trade, hands down!”
Note that Perkins made this claim even before Harden made his Sixers debut. Big Perk has come out with some bold predictions in the past, but this one has got to be up there with his most audacious ones.
In a recent episode of The Big Podcast with Shaq, O'Neal could not help but discuss this pressing matter. When asked to share his thoughts on the comparison between the Kobe-Shaq duo and the Harden-Embiid partnership, the Lakers icon clearly wasn't in agreement at all:
“No. No. Hell no,” Shaq firmly stated. “Not after one year. Me and Kobe had eight years of damage together. No, not even close. Stop it. Listen, no, hell no and f–k no.”
Shaq also reminded everyone that the late, great Kobe Bryant and himself won three NBA championships in Hollywood. Harden and Embiid have won five games together.
For what it's worth, Perk actually backtracked on his Kobe-Shaq comparison for Harden and Embiid. He admitted that it was the wrong take only to make another fearless forecast:
“I said, that they actually had the possibility of being on the verge of being the next Kobe [Bryant] and Shaq [O’Neal]. That was the wrong comparison. I’m looking at Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar right now,” Perkins said. “When you put [Harden and Embiid] together… I don’t know who in the hell can stop those two.”
Now I'm not sure if Perkins made it better or worse with his second comparison. What is abundantly clear here is that Big Perk has extremely high hopes for the Harden-Embiid partnership in Philadelphia. Shaq, on the other hand, is not ready to jump on Perk's hype train just yet.
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