it's the norm.
regarding 04 though. when it happened as a Laker fan I was pretty pissed with Kobe and he went about some things in an unideal way. However as time progressed, I realized that him and Shaq were both equally responsible for that teams downfall.
Kobe was a douche and had selfish tendancies at the time but he was putting the work in and constantly improving. how he went about things as a teammate at that time was a flaw though. Shaq was dominant from 2000-02 but his work ethic and bad habits made his decline come faster then it should've. by 2004 he wasn't the dominant shaq we saw during the 3 peat.
they lost to the spurs in 2003. they got off to a terrible start. Shaq delayed toe surgery in the 2002 summer because in his words, "he got hurt on company time, so he should miss games on company time" factor that in and the fatigue factor of coming off a 3 peat, that Laker team was in a deep hole from the slow start. They rebounded pretty strong to make the 2nd round, but that whole routine of good around during the regular season and turn the switch on in the playoffs wasn't always going to work when a team like the Spurs who they beat in 2 one sided series's in 2001 and 2002 were constantly improving their team and a team like Sacramento was making it's push and arguably may have won the title that year had Webber never got hurt against Dallas.
Shaq came into camp out of shape again in 2003, went about things with his usual, "the big man needs the ball" "the big man is the leader" routine and Kobe didn't help matters by airing his issues out publicly.
Despite all that turmoil and tension, they beat San Antonio (a series which many felt would determine the NBA champion) knocked off Minnesota while going through Kobe's Colorado issues, Shaq and Kobe problems, and all the other drama with Phil. They just happened to run into a buzzsaw Detroit team which was peaking at the right time. This Detroit team was much better all around defensively. Granted Shaq had his way with Rik Smits and Mutombo in 2000 and 2001 and Jason Collins and Todd Mccullogh on the Nets in 2002 were slouches but this was a better overall defensive team then what the Lakers played in previous years and this was a less dominant Shaq. This is where the conditioning and past 2 summers of coming into camp out of shape come into play.
Personally even if that Lakers team was getting along and didn't have the issues they did, I still think Detroit would beat them. It's not like they were losing close games where Detroit was getting lucky, Detroit was dominating them and the internal issues didn't help and Detroit peaked at the right time on top of that, they weren't no flukes. They came damn close to repeating as champs the next season.
Ultimately both Shaq and Kobe were to blame. Shaq had a messy exit from Orlando, a messy exit from the Lakers, and a messy exit from Miami and it gets to the point where at what point do sit and wonder, is it really everyone elses fault at every place Shaq had a messy exit from. As happy as Shaq was to be in Miami and get away from the Lakers, things went sour and fell apart not even 4 years later.
Kobe was a douche and things playing out the way they did humbled him as well.
Ultimately it was best both sides parted ways when they did though. That Laker team wasn't winning anymore titles with Kobe and Shaq the way things were. Shaq got his 4th title in Miami, the Lakers were able to get a head start on rebuilding and were back in the Finals in 4 years. It's the rare case where both sides who parted ways won in a sense. Both sides could've handled things better but with egos and everything it's easier said then done.
My bad for the long rant though
