Posted by Sabrina B. @gametimegirl

Robert Horry, who was on the Lakers from the 1996-97 season through 2002-03, believes coach Phil Jackson is to blame for the feud between Kobe Bryant and Shaqulle O’Neal, which led to Shaq’s departure from L.A. in ’04.

Shaq and Kobe were actually good friends, Horry said, until Jackson’s mind games drove them apart.

“I think Phil Jackson started that feud,” Horry told Sports.ru in Russia (via USA Today and Rush n’ Hoops). “It happened many times that after team practice he would say, ‘Kobe said this about Shaq, and Shaq said that about Kobe’ …

“We couldn’t believe how could that happen, because just the day before we saw them together, jumping on one another. Phil liked it when there was conflict of some sort.

“I always tell people; if you look at those championships, you’ll see who were the closest players on the team. Normally those are the guys who are the first to hug each other. And when we were winning, it was always Shaq and Kobe who hugged. I think this will answer your question. Later it was blown out of proportion by the media and both players started doing something that didn’t make sense.”

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