Penny Hardaway explains the difference between him and Kobe Bryant: "I don't care about who the man is on the team"

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Penny Hardaway admitted that it was tough to watch Kobe Bryant win three straight championships with Shaquille O’Neal. That’s because before Shaq had Kobe, he had Penny.

During an interview with GQ, Hardaway said that if Big Diesel did not leave in free agency, their pairing wouldn’t have suffered the same fate as the Shaq-Kobe duo in Los Angeles because he was different from Bryant.

“Kobe had a different temperament than me,” explained Hardaway. “We’re both competitive, but he was much more outspoken. I would let anything roll off me. Nothing bothered me. I never complained. I was an introvert.”

Los Angeles was too small for Shaq and Kobe

According to Hardaway, even the city of Los Angeles was too small for two big egos like Bryant and O’Neal. Obviously, the two could not co-exist forever, and with two alpha males battling for control, the partnership was headed to a divorce.

On the other hand, the former Memphis Tiger said that he came to Orlando to win championships, not to compete with O’Neal. Shaq continued to dominate after Penny’s arrival, as Hardaway was content to play second fiddle on a winning team.

“You could tell Shaq and Kobe were fighting and couldn’t get along,” added Penny. “Me? I just wanted to win. I didn’t care about titles unless they were championship titles. I don’t care about who the man is on the team. I basically bowed down to Shaq, but my play earned me a First Team All-NBA selection (in 1996). I wasn’t trying to make First Team All-NBA, I just wanted to win,” remarked Hardaway.

Kobe blamed playing with Shaq as the reason he won only one MVP award

While Penny said he didn’t care about individual accolades, Kobe went as far as blaming Shaq for not winning more than one MVP award. Bryant once claimed that if he hadn’t played with O’Neal, his stats would have been off the charts, and he could have easily won more MVP awards.

“Because I played with Shaq. It’s that simple,” Bryant told ESPN when asked why he only won one MVP award. “A lot of the time, we cancelled each other out. I sacrificed a lot playing with him. I really did. I did it for the success of the team. If I never played with him, my numbers would have been ridiculous.”

Big Aristotle played with Mamba for 8 seasons, and they won their three-peat towards the end of their partnership. Meanwhile, the Magic duo played only three seasons together as The Diesel left for Los Angeles. If he hadn’t gone, there’s a chance he still would’ve won a ring with Penny. Given Hardaway’s submissiveness, they could’ve won more rings together. But then again, maybe the legendary center needed someone like Kobe to push him harder.