Just like for Michael Jordan, the cult anecdotes about Kobe Bryant are very numerous and we have probably not finished discovering them. Here is a short story told by Luke Walton, who was a teammate of the Black Mamba for a long time.
“I remember once in my rookie season,” said Luke Walton on l’OpenRun podcast. And Kobe and Shaq liked to do that to rookies and any young player,” explained Luke Walton. “So I arrive at training and I was probably a little very drunk the day before. I was fine, and they noticed that I smelled like alcohol. Then Kobe informed the rest of the team that no one was allowed to help me in defense and that I was going to have to defend on him during all training. At first I laughed like ‘Oh, that’s funny’ but in Kobe’s head, in his eyes it was ‘No, I see and feel weakness, I’m going to destroy you today.’ He taught me a lesson. He probably scored something like 70 points in practice that day, and I was begging for help, but nobody helped me. His killer institute and his work ethic, I will always remember. » Walton
Walton also had a similar experience with Shaq.
“Shaq did it to me once. He made me defend on him and I started trying to foul him, and he told me that if I kept fouling he was going to punch me, so I stopped. . It wasn’t fair. I felt like a kid in front of an adult. » Walton
