Shaquille O'Neal is so frequently referred to as the Most Dominant Player in the NBA that, if he ever decides to add another tattoo to his collection, the initials MDP might be appropriate.
Kobe Bryant doesn't receive a single title quite so frequently, but it's clearly no slight to be regularly compared to Michael Jordan, or be called "the best player in the league" (by Shaquille O'Neal) or one of the best in the game (any number of others).
Together, they form the dynamic duo at the core of the Los Angeles Lakers' three straight NBA titles. And that they have learned to truly play together is one reason the Lakers have won those championships and will remain the favorites until someone knocks them out of the top spot.
"In the last couple of years, they blended their talent together very well," says coach Phil Jackson. "I think it was Kobe's ability to grow up, to adjust, to accommodate, Shaq's extending his hand out to Kobe . . . that made that relationship as good as it is."
It wasn't that way from the beginning, or even during the first of the Lakers' title runs, in 2000. That year, their fourth as teammates, O'Neal and Bryant were still individuals who happened to be on the same team more than they were teammates. Given their individual talents, there were, almost inevitably, problems.
In his book with Charley Rosen, "More Than a Game," Jackson recounted a team meeting in the middle of that season in which O'Neal announced that he felt Kobe was playing too selfishly. From that low point, the relationship gradually began to improve, and by the time Bryant played brilliantly to carry the Lakers to an overtime win in Indiana during the Finals, Jackson thought the gap had been bridged.
"After the final buzzer," Jackson wrote, "Shaq went onto the court to find Kobe and gave him a big hug. It was a beautiful sight for me to behold. What had once been a situation that had divided the team was now totally healed."
As it turned out, that pronouncement was premature. The Kobe-Shaq rift would re-emerge in the 2001 season before it was again healed — for good, it appears. Jackson says now that an injury which forced Bryant to miss 11 games actually figured into the two stars' ability to reach an understanding.
"By the time he was ready to come back, the team was more than ready to adopt and adapt to whatever accommodating and style the two players were going to play together," Jackson says. "At that point, you could see the change in the philosophy of the two.
"I think Shaq and Kobe both sort of, simultaneously, were ready to extend a hand to each other," says Jackson. "A lot of it had to do with Kobe getting married and Shaq inviting the newlyweds over and all that kind of stuff."
The change, then and later, was both personal and professional.
On the professional level, Bryant had to learn how to play a secondary role, but not a diminished one.
"It wasn't so much that he had to sublimate his game," says Jackson, "as he had to complement. That's the difference.
"If he developed the role in a complementary manner, Shaquille would recognize his dominance and his abilities and give him more and more space as they went into maturity together as teammates. That's the one thing that's been very pleasing to me as a coach, to see the two of them find success and play a partner role together in a way to win."
And personally, the private Bryant and more outgoing O'Neal came to understand each other.
And I think that gave them a lot of room for their personalities — 'You do what you have to do in your life, and I do my thing.' ... They have the same idea of playing together, enjoying playing together, and appreciating each other's games.
"That switch was so dramatic last year," he adds, "that it (created) tremendous momentum for us in the playoffs."
If the momentum didn't carry through the 2002 regular season, with O'Neal hobbled by various ailments, the understanding between the two players clearly did.
"In the comic-book world," says O'Neal, the man with the Superman tattoo on his arm, "Batman has always been there for Superman, and Superman has always been there for Batman."
Actually, Batman and Robin might be a better analogy.
"I can be a sidekick," says Bryant. "Shaquille is the most dominant player in the world, and as long as he's here, the offense is going to run through him. Because he's here and because he plays, that frees me up for easier opportunities that other players in the league might not get."
And so, with their stars properly aligned, it seems likely the Lakers will make the seamless transition from champions in 2002 to favorites in 2003 and beyond.
"I think winning cures all ills," says New Jersey Nets coach Byron Scott, a teammate of both O'Neal and Bryant in their first years as Lakers. "I think Kobe understands, just like Shaq does, that they need each other."
It's an understanding that didn't come easily.
"We had our ups and downs," Bryant says. "But we understand clearly our roles, and from here on out it should be pretty smooth sailing.
"Unless," he jokes, "we bring in Dennis Rodman or somebody."