We will never tire of learning new stories and anecdotes around Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers of the Three-peat. Recently, the journalist Jeff Pearlman released a book on the Californian dynasty, entitled “Three Rings Circus”, around the relational triangle formed by Phil Jackson, Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal.
In one of the good sheets unveiled on the set of The Jump, on ESPN, we discover in particular how the members of this newly formed team, with a Kobe Bryant rookie, presented themselves to the rest of the group at the request of the coach Del Harris, predecessor of the Zen Master.
It is 1996 and all the members of the locker room will not take long to understand that the young 18-year-old full-back with whom they will share their daily life is a hell of a fanatic and a kid with irrational self-confidence.
“The talent assembled in front of Del Harris was breathtaking. He asked everyone to introduce themselves. Shaquille O’Neal, perky and laughing, stood up first.
‘Hi, I’m Shaq, let’s do this together’.
One by one, his teammates imitated him.
‘Hey, I’m Derek Fisher, a rookie. I’m from good old Arkansas. I am ready to work ‘.
‘Nick Van Exel, 4th season here’.
‘Eddie Jones. I’m from Florida and I’ve been to Temple ‘face.
Then came Kobe’s turn.
‘Yo, my name is Kobe. Kobe Bryant. I am from Pennsylvania. In Lower Merion High School, I dominated everything.
I just want you to know that no one is going to fuck me up. I’m not going to let anyone in the NBA fuck me up. You have been warned ‘. “
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For football fans, this may evoke the famous episode of the arrival of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Ajax Amsterdam, roughly the same age as Kobe Bryant.
“I am Zlatan. And you, who the fuck are you?”, The Swede had blurted out with all the seriousness in the world in front of his dumbfounded teammates.
In athletes of this caliber, there is this immediate desire to show their alpha dog side. Kobe had this character trait, even though he’s expressed it less frontal over the years. It obviously resulted in some spat, but there was indeed no one to take the boy lightly or to doubt his determination to succeed in the rest of his brilliant career.
Sometimes a quick, punchy focus is better than a long speech.
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