Kobe's Beef Trivia Quiz

Answer: Kobe Bryant

Kobe was drafted 13th overall straight out of Lower Merion High School in Pennsylvania. His draft rights were then trade by the Charlotte Hornets to the Lakers in exchange for their starting Center, Vlade Divac. Divac was expendable since the Lakers also signed Shaquille O'Neal in the offseason. Shaq had previously spent four year in Orlando.

Answer: Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal won the 1992 NBA Rookie of the Year Award. Kobe Bryant wasn't even close to winning the award in his rookie year.

Shaq started 81 games and scored 23.4 points per game. He also pulled down a career high 13.9 rebounds per game. In Kobe's rookie year he started just six games and scored only 7.6 points per game.

Answer: Shaquille O'Neal

Kobe Bryant never went to college, so he couldn't have won the college player of the year award. Shaq was a two-time all-american while at Louisiana State University. He was the 1991 NCAA player of the year, and the 1994 FIBA Men's Basketball player of the year.

Answer: Shaquille O'Neal

The 50th anniversary team was picked in 1996, Shaquille O'Neal had played just four seasons at that point, but Kobe was only entering his rookie season. O'Neal was widely regarded as one of the most dominating players of all time. Other teams would often completely change their game plan just to attempt to cover the big man.

Other than hitting free throws (career average of 45 percent), O'Neal was one of the best players at any position throughout most of his career. The only thing that held him back was frequent injuries.

He played 60 or fewer games nine times in his career.

Answer: Kobe Bryant

In his second season Bryant saw his playing time increase, but he was still stuck behind two all-star guards in Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones. In the 1997-98 season he joined them as all-stars along with Shaquille O'Neal, but still only started one game all season other than the all-star game. (He was voted a starter by the fans, despite being a backup on his team.) He lost the 6th man award to former #1 overall draft pick Danny Manning.

Answer: Shaquille O'Neal

Shaquille O'Neal always dabbled in acting and rap during his career. He starred in a few movies early in his career and also released seven albums between 1993 and 2006. His debut album "Shaq Diesel" sold more than 800,000 copies and was certified Platinum.

His second album, "Shaq Fu: Da Return" was certified gold. His singles "What's Up Doc? (Can We Rock)", and "(I Know I Got) Skillz" were both certified Gold on their own.

Answer: Kobe Bryant

As a 37-year-old with 20 seasons on his legs, Kobe dropped 60 points on the Utah Jazz in his final career night. During the game he also had 4 assists, 4 rebounds, a block and a steal. It was the most points scored by a person in their final career game by any played in NBA history.

He finished with a career 25 points per game average. His career high was 81 points, second only to Wilt Chamberlain in for a single game scoring output.

Answer: Kobe Bryant

O'Neal struck first, winning the 2006 NBA championship in just his second season in Miami.

Bryant struck better though, winning the championship in 2009 and 2010 without O'Neal by his side.

In their careers O'Neal went to the Finals six times (1 Orlando, 4 Lakers, 1 Miami) and Bryant seven times (all with the Lakers).

Shaq won three finals MVP awards, Bryant only two.

Answer: Shaquille O'Neal

O'Neal, who retired in 2011 after 19 seasons was inducted along with Allen Iverson, Yao Ming, Sheryl Swoopes, Jerry Reinsdorf and Tom Izzo in 2016. He retired with 1,207 career games played, and a 23.7 career points per game average. A former league MVP, with 4 championships, 3 all-star game MVPs and two league scoring titles. He also lead the league in field goal percentage six times.

Bryant retired following the 2016 season and was not yet eligible for consideration for induction.

Answer: Kobe Bryant

During his rookie season Kobe Bryant became the youngest player to ever win the award. This was the only year he competed in the competition in his career. The WNBA put on an exhibition in 1998, in 1999 the league was on strike and by 2000 he was a superstar and didn't want to risk an injury during an exhibition. Shaq never competed in the dunk contest.