Gary Payton says he warned Shaquille O'Neal not to beef with Dwyane Wade like he did with Kobe Bryant: "I had to pull him aside"

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Gary Payton says he warned Shaquille O'Neal not to beef with Dwyane Wade like he did with Kobe Bryant: "I had to pull him aside" originally appeared on Basketball Network.
When Gary Payton entered the Miami Heat locker room, it didn't feel too different from the one he had walked into a few years earlier in Los Angeles. Shaquille O'Neal was still the towering presence at the center. Only this time, the co-star wasn't a young Kobe Bryant — but a fast-rising Dwayne Wade.
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D-Wade was electrifying. Explosive in the lane. Quick off the dribble. A scoring machine who had already led the team in points per game (27.2) and was on pace for one of the most dominant postseason runs in modern NBA history.
But something felt eerily familiar to GP, who had previously seen chemistry crumble on contending teams.
Putting O'Neal on check
Payton knew what unchecked tension between "Big Diesel" and a young superstar could do. He had witnessed it firsthand during his season with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004 when the Kobe-Shaq feud pulled the seams apart on what should have been a dynasty.
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With that memory burned into his mind, Payton stepped in before the Miami situation spiraled.
"We were having problems with who was our go-to guy and Shaq at that time was not our go-to guy," Payton said. "I think this young kid, Flash, was our guy, he was doing a lot of things, and I just called a team meet and said, 'Look, you guys, we gotta know how to play our role.' And Shaq wasn't really going for that, and I had to pull him aside because that's my brother."
"The Glove" was a veteran voice in the locker room and a Hall of Fame point guard who had played in over 1,300 games and had guarded every marquee guard of his era. He had made it to the NBA Finals twice before but never held the trophy. At 37 years old, he was chasing one last shot at a ring. And he wasn't about to let history repeat itself.
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He had seen how resentment between O'Neal and Bryant festered in L.A. — how media narratives, clashing personalities, and battles over alpha status fractured a team that had already won three titles. So when similar friction began to simmer between the center and Wade, the veteran point guard stepped in early.
Payton had noticed that the offense was naturally shifting toward D-Wade. Coach Pat Riley had leaned into the mismatch potential Wade offered. While O'Neal was still dominant in spurts, his numbers had dipped to 20.0 points and 9.2 rebounds per game in the 2005-06 season, his lowest production since his rookie year.
Meanwhile, "The Flash" was turning into an assassin, drawing double teams and carrying Miami on his back in crunch time.
Related: "Dad, you at 17, me at 17, who was better? I said, 'Listen, son...'" - Dominique Wilkins on the moment he realized his son didn't know how great of a player he was
Taking a role
It wasn't easy for a dominant player like O'Neal, a three-time champion by then, to cede that spotlight. But Payton knew it had to happen if the Heat were going to go all the way.
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"I said, 'Look, if we are going to win this championship, or even make a run for it, you got to be like me,'" Payton said. "We got to say forget it, our time is over … Let's win a championship right now.' And he agreed with me."
For all his dominance, Shaq had not won without a strong perimeter threat beside him. The blueprint was there, surround him with a slashing guard, a capable supporting cast and keep the internal friction low enough to focus on winning.
Payton came off the bench in Miami, logging just 20 minutes a night and averaging 7.7 points. But he hit clutch shots in the Finals, including key fourth-quarter buckets in Game 3 — Miami's first win of the series after going down 0–2 to Dallas.
He embraced his role as the veteran anchor and wanted O'Neal to do the same. It worked — Wade exploded for 34.7 points per game across six Finals games. The chemistry clicked. Miami ripped off four straight wins, clinching the franchise's first NBA title.
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For GP, it was a moment of vindication. After 17 years, nine All-Star selections, and a Defensive Player of the Year award, he finally secured the one thing that had eluded him. Not as the go-to guy, not as the franchise star — but as the peacemaker. The veteran who had seen too much to let pride sink another ship.
The Wade-O'Neal pairing never lasted long after that championship, but they never turned into Shaq-Kobe 2.0 either. And a big part of that was the message the ex-Supersonics guard delivered behind closed doors.
Related: Pat Riley admits he wasn't sure about drafting Dwyane Wade: "I've always preferred coaching 25 or 26-year-olds"
This story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jun 9, 2025, where it first appeared.