Podcast: Talking Kobe, Shaq and the Threepeat Lakers with Jeff Pearlman

The current version of the Los Angeles Lakers is on a bit of a hiatus right now because of the Clippers’ choke job yesterday, so with them not playing until Friday, I decided to go back in time a bit and talk to New York Times bestselling author Jeff Pearlman about his new book: “Three-Ring Circus: Kobe, Shaq, Phil, and the Crazy Years of the Lakers Dynasty.”

The book dives into all kinds of wild detail about that aforementioned dynasty, as well as the chaotic and fun years leading up to it, and how it all fell apart. It also is one of the most clear-eyed and candid pictures of the dysfunctional, insane and successful Kobe and Shaq relationship I’ve seen, and so I wanted to talk to Jeff about what he learned over the course of reporting it out, what he took away from their dynamic and a whole lot more.

We also discussed the time he went to go knock on J.R. Rider’s door to track him down for an interview, how Shaq used to try and play Mormon matchmaker for Mark Madsen, and a whole lot more.

I’ve been reading an advance copy of the book, and it’s incredibly detailed and wonderful, revealing all kinds of stuff I never knew about this team I grew up obsessed with. It is well worth a purchase for any Lakers fan (you can buy it on Amazon, but support a local bookstore if you can).

It comes out next week (Sept. 22), and if you pre-order a copy and tweet Jeff a screenshot, he’ll send you stickers.

To listen to all of the above and more Lakers talk, you can listen to the entire episode below. To make sure you don’t miss a single one moving forward, subscribe to the Silver Screen and Roll podcast feed on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher or Google Podcasts.

You can follow Harrison on Twitter at @hmfaigen, and Jeff at @jeffpearlman.