Kobe, Shaq….AWKWARD

Something very intriguing materialized during the All Star Weekend. The Shaq, Kobe dynamic was as entertaining as it was painful. It was like watching an early Office episode when Michael Scott made your skin crawl with his inappropriate behavior. You just felt uncomfortable with the whole situation, but you could not look away. You felt awkward and tense for Michael, just as you did for Shaq Sunday night.

TNT kept pairing the two together for interviews, which made it all the more painful. They kept prodding the open wound. During the third quarter, ridiculously dressed Craig Sager went down to the West’s bench and interviewed Shaq and Kobe. Kobe had a look on his face like he’d rather be anywhere else in the world. He seemed to be asking himself, “Why am I sitting next to Shaq?” over and over again. At one point, Shaq claimed there had never been bad blood between the two of them, to which I swear you can see Kobe roll his eyes.

Kobe and Shaq ended up winning the MVP award for the game, and so had to be interviewed together once again. This was truly spectacular. Kobe was asked if he could envision him and Shaq playing for the same team, and quicker than I can type the word, he responded with “No.” If you watch Shaq, the look on his face is priceless. It really sums up the night for Shaq. The whole game he seemed to be doing his best to impress Kobe, and Kobe continuously seemed to be saying, “No.”

I liken it to Elementary school kids that had a tree house. Shaq and Kobe were the two leaders of the group, and it worked well for a while. But then they got older and their personalities grew too strong for one tree house. So Kobe gets support from the club and kicks Shaq out. Well, years later in middle school, Shaq gets tired of his new friends and wants to go back to his old crew. So he starts trying to impress Kobe, jokes around with him, sucks up, smokes some cigs, but it’s not working. Kobe will not let Shaq back into the crew. And when this all plays out on national television, it’s as entertaining as any reality TV show airing.