Ranking the most dramatic breakups in NBA history

When superstar NBA players break up, it’s a big deal. Basketball is a game driven by personality and relationships. Chemistry, cohesion, and trust are essential for winning. Putting multiple stars together is often the key to success in the NBA. But when those relationships fall apart, the results can be explosive.

Not every superstar duo or trio is built on friendship. Players don’t need to be best buddies, they just need to work well together. That said, with so much time spent together, such high stakes work, and such big personalities, even the most cordial professional NBA relationship can fall apart.

Whether through free agency or trade, the NBA has seen some intense breakups over the years. Here are the most important ones:

Shaq and Kobe

Few NBA partnerships have earned as much publicity, wonder, and debate like Shaq and Kobe. (There’s a whole Wikipedia page about it!)

Despite a very up and down relationship, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant won three titles in four trips between 2000 and 2004. The Lakers were the marquee NBA franchise in that time, even as the club’s stars often did not see eye to eye.

By 2004 the relationship reached a tipping point. O’Neal was shipped to Miami, though Bryant almost ended up with the Clippers. This was a divorce of the highest order. Doc Rivers called it the “biggest travesty in sports.”

O’Neal would go on to win a title in 2006 with the Heat, while Bryant remained a Laker for life, raising two more banners in LA. Who knows what the duo could have accomplished together?

Shaq and Kobe did bury the hatchet in retirement, and their deep mutual respect was always apparent, even if their time as teammates was sometimes acrimonious.

Harden and the Nets

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Despite all of the hoopla, Brooklyn’s big three of James Harden, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant played just sixteen games together. With the Beard now in Philadelphia, the trio is one of the NBA’s greatest “what ifs.”

The relationship began with an equally big bang. Kyrie Irving shocked Celtics fans by bolting Boston for Brooklyn. And recruiting Kevin Durant to the Big Apple’s second team was no small coup. Summer 2019 represented a major changing of the guard in the NBA.

Irving and Durant have a real brotherhood, going back years. Adding long-time friend James Harden to the mix in January of 2021 seemed like a no-brainer.

Injuries, COVID vaccine mandates, and countless other challenges plagued the Nets, however. Relationships reportedly frayed quickly. As quickly as he arrived, Harden was off to Philadelphia.

LeBron and the Heatles

On July 8, 2014, Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert landed a deal to host the Republican National Convention in June of 2016. Other cities, like Dallas, couldn’t guarantee the date – either the Dallas Mavericks or Dallas Stars could be competing for a championship in 2016, and the American Airlines Arena might be occupied. Gilbert’s Quicken Loans Arena, he believed, would have no such scheduling conflict.

A day later, Gilbert was contacted by LeBron James’ team. Things began moving quickly. On July 11th, James announced his return to Cleveland.

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The RNC would be moved to July to accommodate the King. The Miami Heat, meanwhile, were fully blindsided.

The San Antonio Spurs might have landed the final blow, but the Heatles had been wavering for months. Despite four straight Finals appearances and a close friendship between James, Dwyane Wade, and Chris Bosh, the relationship ultimately fell apart.

James’ first breakup with Dan Gilbert back in 2010 deserves mention here. Ditto his relationship with Kyrie Irving in Cleveland. Or any number of former teammates along the way. How quickly things seemingly turned in the summer of 2014, though, deserves special recognition.

Ray Allen and the Celtics

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Few NBA players have initiated a break up with as big a middle finger as Ray Allen. In the summer of 2012, Allen rejected a two-year, $12 million deal from the Celtics and instead joined the rival Miami Heat for a three-year deal worth just $3 million in annual salary.

Allen felt neglected by the team during the 2012 season, and after five season in Boston decided enough was enough. The ten-time All-Star must’ve felt vindicated when he and the Heat won it all in 2013, while the C’s floundered in the first round.

It took years, but some members of the Celtics finally let tensions cool a little bit. Paul Pierce did exactly that during the 2018 Hall of Fame induction ceremony, as well as more recently.

Kevin Garnett, at the time of this writing, appears a little less enthusiastic about mending things with his old teammate. Some breakups hit harder than others, and few are quite as emotionally charged as the Big Ticket. We all have exes we would sooner forget if we could – perhaps KG is no different.

Wilt Chamberlain and the Warriors

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It’s not just the modern era that has seen big personalities clash. For as long as there has been NBA basketball, there have been messy breakups. During the 1965 All-Star weekend, Wilt Chamberlain was traded from the San Francisco Warriors to the Philadelphia 76ers.

Warriors owner Franklin Mieuli explained the nature of the break-up.

“Chamberlain is not an easy man to love,” Mieuli said. “I don’t mean that I personally dislike him. He’s a good friend of mine. But the fans in San Francisco never learned to love him. I guess most fans are for the little man and the underdog, and Wilt is neither. He’s easy to hate, and we were the best draw in the NBA on the road, when people came to see him lose.”

Superstar players have big personalities and bigger responsibilities. It’s no mystery how or why things change given the circumstances. As long as we have NBA stars, we’ll always have dramatic NBA breakups.

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