Triangle offense innovator Tex Winter knew from the start that Shaquille O’Neal would be the best fit for his system. When he joined Phil Jackson in Los Angeles to implement the triangle, O’Neal wasn’t the only star donning the Purple and Gold. There was a young Kobe Bryant trying to make a name for himself — a predicament that spelled trouble in Winter’s eyes.
The Triangle was perfect for great centers
After a year away from coaching, Phil Jackson agreed to join the Lakers in 1999. Winter, Jackson’s assistant with the Chicago Bulls, followed the Zen Master to Tinseltown. Ahead of their first season in LA, Winter shared his thoughts on implementing the Triangle Offense with Shaq as the head of the snake.
"As a matter of fact, this offense is far more effective with a dominant center," Winter said, per Sports Illustrated. "The center is the apex of the triangle. He is really the first option of the offense. He accepts what we call our 'priority pass,' from the wing into the post, and if he's in a good position to get to the basket, he'll go."
Winter observed that previous NBA teams with a dominant center implemented early variations of the triangle. The Philadelphia 76ers used it with Wilt Chamberlain when they won the 1967 NBA Championship. When Wilt went to LA, they also utilized early iterations of the offense. When the Milwaukee Bucks won the title in 1971, the system also featured bits of the triangle with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar at the center.
The Kobe Dilemma
Winter observed that the Lakers had a Michael Jordan-like player in the Lakers: Kobe Bryant. Even though Jordan won six titles with the help of the system, Winter said that MJ struggled with it. MJ had the urge to catch and shoot instead of letting the offense flow. He believed that Kobe would have the same problem.
"When you take a player with the skills that Jordan or Kobe has, he wants to score every time he touches the ball," Winter says. "That's understandable. But in this offense, you can't make spectators out of your teammates."
Kobe’s indifference toward the triangle offense is pretty well documented. He admitted it himself. The system does not really fit his playstyle. But he rode with it because it brought him glory.
After winning three straight titles, there was a rift between Shaq and Kobe. It was a mixture of personal and professional. Perhaps Kobe wanted the ball more since he felt he was working harder than Shaq. Meanwhile, the Big Fella believed that if Kobe passed him the ball more, then nobody could beat them. Winter foresaw this tension from the very beginning, and he turned out to be right as the superstar duo fell off and split up in 2004 after winning three titles together.