Following an underwhelming decade in the 1990s, the Los Angeles Lakers were poised to ring in the 2000s in style with the emergence of Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant as the NBA’s premier duo.
O’Neal had already been one of the most dominant forces in the league prior to his arrival in Los Angeles. Despite that, however, the Lakers still struggled to construct a championship roster to surround him early on.
Fortunately, that soon changed with Bryant’s rise to superstardom alongside O’Neal and it resulted in the Lakers becoming just the second team in modern NBA history to secure a three-peat.