NBA: Shaquille O'Neal Could've KO'd Kobe Bryant During Team Practice Fight

A former NBA player has revealed that Shaquille O’Neal could have knocked Kobe Bryant out with one punch during a summer team practice fight.

NBA journeyman and former LA Clippers big man Olden Polynice unraveled one of his most unforgettable Bryant and Shaq experiences. In a recent appearance on “Fair Game,” Polynice revealed that a lot of people might not know but he knew Shaq and Bryant very well during his playing years.

According to Polynice, the two Lakers superstars had a fight in the middle of a summer workout and things got out of hand when Shaq threw a punch at Bryant.

He even emphasized that the 6-foot-7, 220-lb Bryant would have barely survived Shaq’s punch if he didn’t step in to mediate. Apparently, Polynice was the closest player standing before Bryant and that’s why he was the one who absorbed the devastating hit from Shaq.

“I was the guy that stopped the (Shaq’s) punch that would pretty much annihilate Kobe if it had landed. We were playing basketball in the summertime and workout, and I still remember Laker personnel. They were watching us when we were playing up and down the court, and they got into an argument,” Polynice recalled.

Polynice also said the main reason that fueled Bryant and Shaq’s argument was about the Lakers. Both Lakers legends were undeniably big personalities in LA at the time, and neither of them backed down in any way, shape, or form during the argument pertaining to who runs the team.

“They get really serious arguing about whose team it is. They square up, Shaquille reeled back and threw it, and I grabbed him. Part of the punch hit me, and the rest followed through on Kobe as soon as I started holding him,” Polynice described.

Being a big man himself, he still had a hard time trying to stop a giant like Shaq when all hell broke loose.

From late 90’s to early 2000’s, Shaq and Bryant led the Los Angeles Lakers to multiple NBA championships and became one of the greatest duos of all time in the process. However, a few months ago, Bryant stated that it was important the “he won championships without Shaq” because he didn’t want people to bash him for being under the center’s shadows for the rest of his career.