{"id":455132,"date":"2026-02-05T08:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/455132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-05T08:51:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T08:51:08","slug":"3-time-all-star-lakers-champ-breaks-down-insane-2000-nba-finals-run","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/455132\/","title":{"rendered":"3-time All-Star, Lakers champ breaks down insane 2000 NBA Finals run"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles Lakers<\/a> Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant leaned on another NBA legend to help them secure their first championship in 2000.<\/p>\n

MORE:\u00a0NBA makes surprise Giannis Antetokounmpo announcement ahead of All-Star Weekend<\/a><\/p>\n

Years of false starts and growing pains for O’Neal and Bryant alongside incumbent Lakers All-Star perimeter mainstays Eddie Jones and Nick Van Exel prompted Los Angeles general manager Jerry West to make some big changes.<\/p>\n

In the summer of 1998, Van Exel was\u00a0flipped to the Denver Nuggets<\/a> for the draft rights to eventual reserve Lakers point guard Tyronn Lue and Tony Battie \u2014 although Battie was traded to the Boston Celtics<\/a> before the start of the lockout-shortened 1998-99 season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Glen Rice’s Arrival in L.A. Took the Lakers to the Next Level<\/p>\n

More critically, Jones and reserve center Elden Campbell were traded after the 1998-99 lockout, but before the start of the season, for the eventual third option who would help put O’Neal and Bryant over the top: three-time All-Star Charlotte Hornets<\/a> small forward Glen Rice.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-8 Michigan product, an ahead-of-his-time floor-stretching forward, made an instant impact in L.A.\u00a0The Lakers posted a 31-19 record under head coach Del Harris (who was fired after a middling 6-6 start) and his interim replacements Bill Bertka and Kurt Rambis.<\/p>\n

L.A. was swept in the second round by the eventual champion San Antonio Spurs<\/a> \u2014 although Rice submitted a superlative playoff performance. The veteran marksman averaged\u00a018.3 points on .446\/.357\/.966 shooting splits, 3.9 boards, 1.6 dimes and 0.7 swipes during that run.<\/p>\n

Following that playoff exit, West made several critical moves to subtly transform his team in the summer of 1999.<\/p>\n

West brought in Phil Jackson, just a season removed from winning his sixth championship in eight years with the Michael Jordan-Scottie Pippen Chicago Bulls<\/a>.\u00a0West and Jackson subsequently brought aboard ex-Bulls starting point guard Ron Harper and former deep-bench Chicago center John Salley, plus a former Rice colleague with the Miami Heat<\/a>, combo guard Brian Shaw. Former Showtime-era champion forward A.C. Green returned, too.<\/p>\n

The new additions managed to successfully congeal around L.A.’s Big Three of O’Neal, Bryant, and Rice, plus key cogs Robert Horry, Derek Fisher and Rick Fox. O’Neal earned his lone MVP honor that season, as he helped push the Lakers to a league-best 67-15 record.<\/p>\n

The Rice addition proved to be a crucial fit improvement over Jones. Where Jones was more of a slasher who clogged the lane, Rice was one of the best 3-point shooters in the game. His presence created a special gravity, compelling his big wing counterparts to close out along the perimeter \u2014 and thus create interior real estate for O’Neal and Bryant to better operate around the rack.<\/p>\n

Rice was a very talented three-level scorer, capable of building up a head of steam in the open floor and also knocking down nifty midrange floaters. He sacrificed the prolific counting stats that made him a perennial All-Star in Charlotte in service of the team, and won his first title as a result.<\/p>\n

It’s important to explain how great Rice was with the Hornets. During his best season in Charlotte, 1996-97, he powered the club to a\u00a054-28 record and finished fifth in MVP voting \u2014 while earning All-Star and All-NBA Second Team accreditation. The then-29-year-old logged a career-best 26.8 points while slashing .477\/.470\/.867, plus 4.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and 0.9 steals a night.<\/p>\n

But in Los Angeles, Rice dialed in to his new role: as the over-qualified third option for one of the greatest teams of all time.<\/p>\n

To even make the Finals that season, the Lakers faced a murderers’ row of competitors in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

L.A.\u00a0took down\u00a0the Chris Webber-era Sacramento Kings<\/a> in the first round, manhandled the Penny Hardaway\/Jason Kidd\/Shawn Marion-era Phoenix Suns<\/a> in the second round,\u00a0and survived the Rasheed Wallace\/Scottie Pippen-era Portland Trail Blazers<\/a> in a hard-fought seven-game Western Conference Finals series.<\/p>\n

To claim their first title together, though, the Lakers had to grapple with a very big, very deep Indiana Pacers club. Anchored by another ahead-of-his-time sharpshooter, Hall of Fame wing Reggie Miller, Indiana was out for blood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Was playing against Miller, a longtime fellow East All-Star, an extra motivating factor for Rice?<\/p>\n

“I always say that Reggie Miller’s my guy, he’s part of the greatest shooters to ever shoot the basketball,” Rice informed The Sporting News. “It’s always a challenge to go up against him. But I wasn’t focused on Reggie Miller, I was focused on just being ready for whenever Shaq or Kobe passed me the basketball and doing my job.”<\/p>\n

It would take six games for the Lakers to begin their legacy. O’Neal and Bryant may have made the headlines for L.A., but Rice quietly had one of the superlative shooting runs in NBA Finals history. He chipped in one of the great floor-spacing performances on the league’s ultimate stage.<\/p>\n

Over the course of the series, Rice connected on an eye-popping 63.2 percent (!) of his 3.2 triple tries a night.<\/p>\n

But, true to form for an all-time hoops great, he scored everywhere else, too.<\/p>\n

When Kobe Bryant went down with an ankle injury during the first half of Game 2, the Lakers leaned more heavily on Rice and O’Neal to nab the shorthanded victory. Both delivered in an eventual 111-104 win.<\/p>\n

O’Neal scored 40 points and pulled down 24 boards. Rice, suddenly the Lakers’ top healthy perimeter scoring option, chipped in his Finals-most\u00a021 points on 7-of-15 shooting from the field (5-of-6 from deep!) and 2-of-2 shooting from the foul line. Rice also grabbed four rebounds and dished out three dimes.<\/p>\n

During the closeout contest, No. 41 scored 16 points on 5-of-7 field goal shooting (3-of-3 from distance) and 3-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe, plus six boards, two dimes and a steal.<\/p>\n

“It was a really good opportunity for me there, being able to be in a position to win my first NBA championship,” Rice noted. “So yeah I was zoned in. When you get a shooter like myself zoned in like that, a lot of things are possible. I’m just blessed to be able to stay on target.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rice Rides for the AT&T Dunk Bus<\/p>\n

Rice, now a Heat scout, was on hand in Miami for the launch of NBA partner AT&T’s brand-new Dunk Bus activation<\/a>. It’s a traveling interactive immersion specially curated for hoop heads everywhere, replete with NBA 2K competitions and meetings with league legends. The Dunk Bus was in Miami for both a community day on Jan. 30 and a Feb. 1 Game Day experiential event, designed to coincide with the Heat’s lopsided 134-91 obliteration of the Chicago Bulls<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“What the AT&T Dunk Bus is allowing a lot of fans to do is be able to stay connected to the game,” Rice told The Sporting News, adding that the Dunk Bus “keeps you connected to the game and allows the fans to continue to keep enjoying the game. That’s what it’s all about: having an opportunity to enjoy the best game in the world.”<\/p>\n

The Dunk Bus will be in LA for All-Star Weekend from Feb. 13-17, before jetting to Dallas, then back to LA. It will next set up shop in Chicago, and could wind up in Oklahoma City during this spring’s playoffs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Lakers Hall of Famers Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant leaned on another NBA legend to help…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":455133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-455132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=455132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/455133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=455132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=455132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=455132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}