- It's Christmas Day, 2004.
The visiting Miami Heat lead the L.A. Lakers by two points
with just a few seconds left in overtime.
Kobe Bryant has the ball, and a final chance
to win this thing.
I'm not gonna lie to you, in terms of its actual effect
on history, this moment doesn't really matter.
But that's not what Christmas Day NBA games are about.
Christmas games are about drama.
To understand the narrative and the emotions at play here,
we need to understand the history behind people
on this floor, as well as some people off of it.
Before Kobe attempts to claim
this moment as his own, let's rewind.
(inquisitive digital music)
It's Christmas, so you know this matchup is special.
NBA on Christmas is a tradition that dates back
to December 25, 1947, the league's second season,
when the Knicks beat the Providence Steamrollers.
This is when like 1/2 the Knicks were Jews,
so they were probably fine with it.
The NBA has done Christmas ever since,
and the league leans into it by making sure
the games transmit nationally resonant storylines.
It's a day to pit rival teams against one other,
to stage dramatic individual matchups.
That got kinda awkward earlier today.
The first game on the Christmas slate was Pistons-Pacers,
a matchup of last season's champion, and the bitter rival
they upset in the Eastern Conference Finals.
It was also a rematch of this,
for which a couple players are still suspended.
That rivalry might be a bit too bitter, but yeah,
the league put Heat-Lakers on Christmas for a reason,
and it's clearly not because the Heat and Lakers
are longtime rivals.
It's because this was the first-ever matchup
between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O'Neal,
Shaq's return to Los Angeles after eight eventful years
as Kobe's teammate.
By the end of the '03-'04 season,
the Lakers were volatile to say the least.
Shaq and Kobe had been openly battling all year,
and that's when Kobe was around,
which he often wasn't because of his
ongoing sexual assault case.
On the court, Phil Jackson's superstar-stuffed team
fell short in the NBA Finals, and at season's end,
Phil's contract was up, Kobe would opt out of his contract
to become a free agent, and Shaq had the leverage
to push for a trade.
All three of them had said nasty things to
and about one another.
It would have taken a miracle to keep that core together,
and there would be no miracle.
Days after the Finals loss, the Lakers let Phil Jackson go.
The Lakers would eventually replace Phil
with Rudy Tomjanovich, another legendary,
championship-winning coach, who had taken a year away
from the NBA while recovering from bladder cancer.
Rudy was really the only contender for the job
after Duke's Mike Krzyzewki said no, meanwhile,
just days after Jackson's departure, Shaq did indeed
demand a trade.
It wasn't clear at that point
whether Kobe would stick in L.A.,
but Shaq believed legitimately
that the organization favored his younger teammate,
and was fed up.
Immediately, the Lakers were fielding calls
from most of the league's teams, but they focused on
potential trade partners with whom Shaq might actually
sign a contract extension.
Shaq and Orlando's Tracy McGrady were both angling
to become Dallas Mavericks, but the Mavs
wouldn't make Dirk Nowitzki available to trade,
maybe not even Steve Nash.
The same went for the Pacers
and their best player, Jermaine O'Neal.
The Nets were pursuing the New Jersey native,
but couldn't get it done with packages centered
around Kenyon Martin and Kerry Kittles.
A return to the Magic would've made Shaq happy,
but after dealing T-Mac to the Rockets,
Orlando wasn't gonna make it happen.
The Venn diagram of teams Shaq would accept
and teams that could actually produce a decent return
for the Lakers narrowed to one, the Miami Heat,
and in mid-July, they finally got it done.
The Lakers got promising youngsters, Lamar Odom
and Caron Butler, veteran big-man, Brian Grant,
and a draft pick.
The Heat got Shaq.
Around the same time,
Kobe had been holding free agency meetings
with teams like the Bulls, Knicks, and Nuggets,
and most notably, the Clippers,
the team in the very same building.
But really, Kobe was just waiting
to make sure Shaq left town.
A day after the O'Neal trade became official,
and still in the middle of his legal proceedings,
Kobe re-signed in L.A. for seven years
and over $136 million.
By the way, we're not guessing at what these people
were thinking and feeling about each other
before the Lakers fell apart.
We've heard it directly from Phil Jackson,
who released a book called The Last Season
two months before this game.
That guy writes fast.
This tell-all book made Kobe in particular look bad,
and injected some extra hype into this matchup today.
It was hype that Shaq couldn't help but stoke
when asked what would happen
if Kobe drove the lane against him.
He compared that to a Corvette hitting a brick wall.
But Shaq mostly downplayed the hysteria,
expressing contentment with his new situation in Miami,
and his new co-star, second-year guard, Dwyane Wade.
His old co-star sounded more apologetic than anything,
and I think this Kobe-Shaq battle has lived up
to any reasonable expectation,
considering they don't play the same position.
The two exchanged a totally ordinary handshake
before tip-off.
Shaq swatted Kobe's very first shot attempt,
then Kobe hit a gorgeous fade-away over him
the next time down.
And if you're wondering
why Shaq's not on the floor right now, it's because
a few minutes ago, the Corvette did
indeed hit the brick wall, and that was the brick wall's
sixth foul, Shaq fouled out.
But let's talk about who is on the floor,
'cause this is kind of a ragtag bunch.
Start with Miami.
Here's Wade, who is already playing like an All Star
in his sophomore season, and who,
despite a leg injury, has had a thrilling battle '
with Kobe this evening, producing quite a bit,
and missing quite a bit, too, to keep pace
with his opponent.
Wade has even directly confronted him a few times.
It's been awesome to watch, although it could've been
even sweeter if Wade got his game-winner to fall
at the end of regulation.
By Wade's side, helping him on Kobe, is Eddie Jones,
an interesting bridge between these two guys.
At the time the Lakers traded for Kobe on Draft Night '96,
Jones was their best-scoring guard.
Jones was Kobe's mentor for years, and eventually got traded
as the blossoming youngster took over his role.
Jones has been in Miami since 2000,
and led the Heat in scoring for a couple years,
but there's a new kid in town.
Jones has ceded the shooting guard position
and a whole lot of touches to the younger Wade,
and now Shaq's here too.
This must all feel very familiar to Eddie Jones,
but the rest of these guys aren't quite so familiar.
Trading three starters for the highest-paid player
in the NBA meant the Heat had to do
some creative back-filling to field a decent team.
Here's Udonis Haslem.
In 2002, he was undrafted, overweight,
and playing for a mediocre French team.
Two years, and one breakout training camp later,
he's Miami's regular starting power forward,
and he's finished some gorgeous connections
with Wade here today.
Damon Jones went undrafted out of Houston in 1997,
then became a journeyman, first in obscure leagues
and then with a different NBA team every year.
But this season, his first in Miami, Jones has grabbed
the starting point guard spot, and has busted out
as one of the league's deadliest shooters.
He hit a huge three to help keep this game close
at the end of regulation.
This guy's a little different.
This is Christian Laettner.
Yes, that Christian Laettner.
The despised Duke legend and former All Star
who is now 35 years old, and taking one last spin
before he hangs it up for good.
On a shallow Heat roster,
he is one of the best bench players,
and he hit a pretty neat runner to beat the halftime buzzer,
but he is only on the floor right now
because Shaq fouled out.
Hi, Christian.
With this lopsided combination of undrafted achievers,
star guards, young and old, and Shaq,
the Heat have formed something special.
They're they best team in the Eastern Conference right now,
which is a big step up from last year,
and has a lot to do with this man.
Days before the '03-'04 season began,
longtime Miami coach-slash-president, Pat Riley,
abruptly resigned as coach, and promoted veteran assistant
Stan Van Gundy to take his place.
Van Gundy led what had been a losing squad
into the playoffs, and even won a series,
thanks in part to the heroics of the rookie Wade.
After the Heat fell to the Pacers in the second round,
Riley did Van Gundy another solid, gifting him the largest
and most dominant force of his generation.
After losing three rotation players for one Shaq,
the Mustache Man has wasted no time
building a world class offense and defense.
In fact, since Van Gundy made Damon Jones
his regular starting point guard,
Miami has won ten straight games.
This team can reasonably be expected to battle the Pistons
for the Eastern Conference title, and honestly,
anything less might make Riley a little antsy.
But for now, the Heat are hangin' on for dear life
in a regular season game against the Lakers,
and that's not as noble a situation as it used to be.
Take a look at who coach Tomjanovich
has on the floor with Kobe.
Here's Odom, who's having a nice first season
as Kobe's Swiss Army Knife sidekick,
and who's been excellent today, right up through
the huge three-pointer that kept L.A. in this game in OT.
Caron Butler's not here because he got suspended
for punching Dan Dickau a few days ago.
Second year big man Brian Cook
is on the floor for his shooting.
It was either him, or Chris Mihm.
These other two guys are Chucky Atkins and Jumaine Jones.
They averaged 10 points a game combined last season,
and yet, here they are, closing a game
for a recent champion.
The explosion of the Phil-Kobe-Shaq triumvirate
wasn't the only important thing
to happen to the Lakers this summer.
The '04 Lakers were a ridiculous, superstar Megazord,
and thee two losses were pretty important, too.
The Lakers wanted to re-sign Karl Malone.
He was still effective in his 40s, but after injuries
plagued his season and limited him in the Finals,
Malone opted out of his contract,
and he's probably gonna retire.
Gary Payton had been L.A.'s starting point guard,
but got lit up by Finals MVP Chauncey Billups,
so the Lakers traded him and longtime glue guy, Rick Fox,
to the Celtics, for this tasty little platter of younger,
worse players, who'd been pushed into big minutes
all season long, including today.
All of this is to say, the Lakers belong
almost entirely to Kobe now.
Odom, Butler, and Grant can't replace
the guys who departed ,and the rest of these dorks
certainly don't make up the difference.
This is, for the first time in his career,
unequivocally Kobe's team.
So how's that going?
Kobe has been struggling to find himself
in a post-Shaq environment.
He's had nights of heaving over 30 shots,
and nights of dishing out over 10 assists.
He's under 40% from the field on the season,
and just 31% from downtown so far.
No matter what he's done,
the Lakers have stayed merely okay.
A franchise that hasn't missed the playoffs in a decade
sits at 14 and 11, outside the playoff picture
in a loaded Western Conference.
Part of that is because Kobe hasn't delivered in the clutch,
not so far this year.
He's taken about a 1/2 dozen shots to win or tie games
in the final minute, and he's missed all of them,
including a couple late jumpers against
the conference-leading Suns earlier this month.
Tonight's been a mixed bag.
Kobe has 42 points on 29 shots, some of them very difficult.
He's handed out six assists,
and committed nine ugly turnovers.
Instead of breaking the tie himself
in the final minute of regulation, he passed out
of a double team too late for Chucky Atkins
to beat the shot clock buzzer.
So now he's gonna take this game winner himself,
there is no doubt.
And what will this shot do?
In the course of history, nothing important.
But that's never what it's been about
in the 1/2-century history of Christmas NBA games.
Christmas basketball is about narratives,
about sending messages.
With a make, Kobe could say, even just for today,
that he doesn't need Shaq, doesn't need Phil to win,
that the Lakers were right to favor him as the face
of the franchise's new era.
A miss, well, that'll provide momentary affirmation
that Shaq made the right move,
that he got out at the right time,
and that he's an individual dominant enough
to make a team great.
Though, we shouldn't forget the coach,
the brilliant youngster and his mentor,
and the wandering oddballs who have helped
turn this team into a sudden contender.
Whatever happens, it'll end one of the most-hyped
Christmas games ever, and the rare one
that's lived up to it's billing.
Okay, welcome to a moment in Christmas history.
- [Al] Bryant gets doubled, Kobe Bryant!
(buzzer sounding)
(crowd cheering)
(click)