Speaker 1: What up y'all. As you guys probably know, Stack and
Speaker 1: I are on summer break right now, taking a little
Speaker 1: time with the family. But we back to All the
Speaker 1: Smoke soon. But to on our brother Kobe and his
Speaker 1: birthday coming up, we put together a special mashup our
Speaker 1: long video of Kobe stories from our prior guests, from
Speaker 1: Klay Thompson to Shack to Jeanie Buss, Carmelo Anthony. The
Speaker 1: list goes on the effect that Kobe had on their lives,
Speaker 1: on our lives, on your lives. So we hope you
Speaker 1: guys enjoyed the video. Happy birthday to our brother and
Speaker 1: we'll see you guys in a few weeks.
Speaker 2: Happy birthday, Kobe Bean Brian. Hey, we miss you, Bro
Speaker 2: from morning until we join you. Say me and Matt
Speaker 2: Ben spend a little time with our family, take a break.
Speaker 2: We'll be right back at youall with most great content.
Speaker 2: All the Smoke, Showtime Basketball Today. Tribute to my brother
Speaker 2: Kobe Bean Brian All I guess loved him, had great stories,
Speaker 2: wanted to give him his flowers. So we're gonna get
Speaker 2: it to y'all today. Our long video of just giving
Speaker 2: our brother his love. Happy Birthday being Brian Showtime Basketball.
Speaker 3: I remember Cole's first day on our AAU team. So
Speaker 3: I played AAU and Patterson with Tim Thomas and kill
Speaker 3: our squad.
Speaker 4: We were playing I remember playing it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we were playing against Elton Brand and those and
Speaker 3: Coles comes to the squad and the first couple of
Speaker 3: games he wasn't starting coming in doing these things still,
Speaker 3: and then big Bean Pops came up like, hey, hey,
Speaker 3: it's cold.
Speaker 4: It's my young fella. He deserves to be out there.
Speaker 4: He's just as good as whatever.
Speaker 3: So I remember Cole's first game playing the point, coming down,
Speaker 3: gets the half court boom, pull up, she's a hairball.
Speaker 5: We're like, bro, what's up?
Speaker 3: Step in a little bit, you know, right, come down
Speaker 3: to the sept poom boom one two at half court
Speaker 3: next time. All net like his confidence. He's like, bro,
Speaker 3: I can hit that. That's just nothing. That's my you know.
Speaker 3: It was just that mentality at that age earlier, on
Speaker 3: his first second game playing with this team, it wouldn't like,
Speaker 3: let me fit in Tim Thomas' Tim Thomas's number one
Speaker 3: in his class.
Speaker 4: I'm top five. He like, bro, I'm below.
Speaker 5: Hey, rip.
Speaker 6: I used to tell people about the McDonald's game. Like
Speaker 6: when he was there, he had a certain aura and
Speaker 6: a certain presence about him that we all knew he
Speaker 6: was gonna be great.
Speaker 1: Bro.
Speaker 6: Like I tell a story, like everybody has pictures were
Speaker 6: like group pictures together, but everybody was taking one on
Speaker 6: one pictures with Kobe game.
Speaker 4: Because we all knew.
Speaker 6: Everybody knew, bro, don't I got pictures with everybody, but
Speaker 6: Kvie is the only person I got a one on one.
Speaker 7: Picture with in high school.
Speaker 5: Bro.
Speaker 8: We knew then that this dude was different, Bro, Yo,
Speaker 8: he was. He was for real, man stank he was.
Speaker 8: I mean, like we used to because we were roommates too,
Speaker 8: Like so.
Speaker 4: All the au events we were roommates and stuff like that.
Speaker 8: And I remember when he was talking about on your show,
Speaker 8: like he had to kill this, right, And it's funny
Speaker 8: because you know, we were in roommates and it was
Speaker 8: many times at night that this dude just didn't want
Speaker 8: to go to sleep, you just wanted to talk basketball, right.
Speaker 8: And we were about to play Tim Thomas and a
Speaker 8: Charlie Webber tournament in Maryland, and Tim Thomas was the
Speaker 8: number one player in the country at the time, and
Speaker 8: Cole was just in a room all night, like one
Speaker 8: o'clock in the morning, just pacing around my bed like, yo, rip,
Speaker 8: you know tomorrow I'm gonna kill this dude.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, I'm like.
Speaker 8: Tim Thomas, Like, first of all, we don't even play
Speaker 8: the same position as him, right, But but Tim played
Speaker 8: on the wing at that time too. Like he was
Speaker 8: surreal at that time, right because he was a six ' nine,
Speaker 8: can handle the ball, can play inside outside.
Speaker 4: He was like, Man, I'm gonna kill this dude.
Speaker 9: Man.
Speaker 8: He was like after after tomorrow, it ain't gonna be
Speaker 8: no doubt in anybody's mind who the number one player
Speaker 8: in America is, Like they saying I ain't.
Speaker 4: The number one player.
Speaker 8: Watch watch after the Morrow night, I'm like, bro, go
Speaker 8: to sleep, man.
Speaker 1: We played them early in the morning.
Speaker 8: Man, I like, let's talk about this pregame, but like tonight,
Speaker 8: let's go to bed. So from a mentality standpoint, man, dude,
Speaker 8: dude was different.
Speaker 6: Man.
Speaker 7: He was definitely one of a kind.
Speaker 1: How did he do in the game?
Speaker 8: Was after the game, Bro, Matt, After that game, you
Speaker 8: can pull up every tabloid or every little Skelt report,
Speaker 8: and every last one of them had Kobe Bryant as
Speaker 8: the number one.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I remember that.
Speaker 10: He came out.
Speaker 8: He might have had close to fifth, right, I remember that. Yeah,
Speaker 8: And we won, and we won.
Speaker 1: You guys came in pretty much the same time in
Speaker 1: similar starts to where it took you a couple of
Speaker 1: years to get your to really get on the court,
Speaker 1: It took Cod a couple of years to get on
Speaker 1: the court. But like you guys said, you guys were
Speaker 1: both Adidas guys, both young and out of place and
Speaker 1: really had to lean on each other. Talk to me
Speaker 1: more about your guys relationship.
Speaker 11: So because we were, you know, both Adidas guys and
Speaker 11: both made the jump from high school to the pros,
Speaker 11: there was an opportunity for me to go out there
Speaker 11: and just be around Cod in La. And I went
Speaker 11: out to La. I stayed with him in the house
Speaker 11: with him and his parents. Mom used to fire out that,
Speaker 11: you know, fried chicken for us and macarodi and cheese.
Speaker 11: I was eating good at that boy house. Man he
Speaker 11: had he had chores and everything.
Speaker 5: But yeah and up pale.
Speaker 11: Yeah, he was out there, absolutely, But to be around
Speaker 11: cold at nineteen years old, bro, you would have thought
Speaker 11: Cod had been here before and been around you know
Speaker 11: the greats of the game. Because his mindset was so
Speaker 11: different Bro than I ever experienced. I ever seen anybody
Speaker 11: at nineteen years old like this man really and truly
Speaker 11: thought he was better than Michael Jordan, was gonna be.
Speaker 5: Better than Michael Jordan.
Speaker 4: Thank you tea man.
Speaker 5: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 11: And at the time, I'm looking at my dog, I'm like, Bro,
Speaker 11: you crazy as hell. Bro for anybody's even think that
Speaker 11: as a team, And I'm like, Bro, something, I don't
Speaker 11: want you fair like you crazy. So we used to
Speaker 11: watch his home his Homegrowl movies, Come Fly with Me, Playground.
Speaker 11: I used to watch that religiously. Bro, Paul's it and
Speaker 11: might do something Paul rewind mimic it. I was like dog,
Speaker 11: he was obsessed with this shit karate flicks.
Speaker 4: I mean, man, he was different.
Speaker 5: Bro.
Speaker 11: Going to school, I was like, Bro and his work, ethic,
Speaker 11: just everything just bro off on me. And how he
Speaker 11: handled himself. Man, Partying wasn't his thing. He wasn't to
Speaker 11: hang out. Now, Oh you want you going to the club, Shit,
Speaker 11: I'm gonna go to the gym. Put up these shots
Speaker 11: like That's what he was about. He was just he
Speaker 11: was different. I learned from him, and you know, he
Speaker 11: struggled his first year. It was Spad the Lakers. The
Speaker 11: players used to mess with Coche so bad his first year. Man,
Speaker 11: he hated it, bro And because he took those steps,
Speaker 11: he went through that fire. I came after. I was
Speaker 11: able to lean on him times where I felt like
Speaker 11: I made a mistake of coming out of high school.
Speaker 11: So I leaned on him all the time, man, and
Speaker 11: our relationship started to do like this because he was
Speaker 11: concentrated on trying to win championships and he sacrificed everything,
Speaker 11: like he cut everybody off to win championship and be
Speaker 11: great as he possibly can be.
Speaker 4: And I was over here trying to win scoring titles.
Speaker 12: I knew that he had it. I remember him at
Speaker 12: eighteen years old telling me he's gonna be the Will
Speaker 12: Smith of the NBA. Like slow down, young fella. But
Speaker 12: he had a dream. He had a vision, you got, Jiggie.
Speaker 5: Yeah, he did.
Speaker 12: He had a dream. He had a vision, and look
Speaker 12: he went for him.
Speaker 1: Being forty nine year old. Check looking back on those
Speaker 1: Laker days, he said, you won three out of four.
Speaker 1: He said, you probably cause for some of the ego
Speaker 1: if you had the wisdom you have now back then,
Speaker 1: how many championships you feel like you guys could have
Speaker 1: watched seventh.
Speaker 12: Because the reason why I got traded it wasn't about
Speaker 12: me and Kobe Beef is what they wanted me to
Speaker 12: take less money not doing that.
Speaker 2: Cole said at least ten. We asked him, he said
Speaker 2: at least ten? Yeah, said seven and ten for the Spurs. No,
Speaker 2: that's true, but I got money. I had money.
Speaker 12: I just should have been like, all right, I raise
Speaker 12: you enough, it's your team now, I know what I'm
Speaker 12: gonna do. I'm still gonna do my twenty eight ten
Speaker 12: all right. But I was like, nah, I want, I want,
Speaker 12: I don't care what you like. If I had all
Speaker 12: over do again, I probably would have had a meeting
Speaker 12: with the family.
Speaker 5: What's y'all want to do?
Speaker 12: Want me take less money, take a less role, stay here,
Speaker 12: or you were still wanting to be shocked? He's that
Speaker 12: ego and the egos still got me what I want.
Speaker 12: I still went to Miami and Pat carried me. I
Speaker 12: still won one, but I would have liked to have
Speaker 12: stayed there the rest of my career.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Kobe, you got a chance to play with him,
Speaker 1: at the beginning of his career, at the end of
Speaker 1: your career. And we had we had talked about this
Speaker 1: when we had sat down at the crib. Tell tell
Speaker 1: us some of the stuff that went on, because you
Speaker 1: caught a young Kobe and you guys are in the
Speaker 1: same position, right.
Speaker 13: So my third year was his first A Jones was
Speaker 13: starting off, you know.
Speaker 4: At the time. Yeah, he was an All Star.
Speaker 13: He was an All Star or whatever, fake all Star,
Speaker 13: but he was an All Star, right, and then Kobe, Kobe, Kobe.
Speaker 7: I just I remember Kobe, a young lion.
Speaker 4: You were just like, you know how young lions hunt,
Speaker 4: you know what I mean, And like, man.
Speaker 13: I can get out there and get me a kill,
Speaker 13: you know what I mean, Just put me in a game, coach.
Speaker 4: He was over there home.
Speaker 13: Oh, he was over there hungry. I just seen it
Speaker 13: in his eyes. Right, So when he got a gang, right,
Speaker 13: and I used to kill Addie Jones. I used to
Speaker 13: really really serve that guy. So Kobe Coby real talk,
Speaker 13: you know, I mean the silver food one time two
Speaker 13: in any Wood.
Speaker 5: I didn't want to, wouldn't.
Speaker 7: It wasn't even no smoke. I can just said, what's up.
Speaker 7: But that's the whole other stuff.
Speaker 13: Right, But so Cobe on the bench way, you know
Speaker 13: what I mean, Kobe on the bench waiting ready to go.
Speaker 7: When he got the game, he was real.
Speaker 4: He was real.
Speaker 14: I'm just gonna say a while, right.
Speaker 4: He was kind of wild.
Speaker 13: But I remember calling my brothers at home, like, man,
Speaker 13: I just played against the raw as young eighteen year
Speaker 13: old that's probably out there.
Speaker 4: I mean, I ain't never played against a young boy that.
Speaker 7: Got it like this.
Speaker 4: So I'm twenty four to.
Speaker 13: Twenty five big boy, you know what I mean, twenty
Speaker 13: four to twenty five playing big.
Speaker 7: You know Jean benjer On all that was he doing.
Speaker 13: But I was I was a grown man, so on
Speaker 13: my mind, no young joy was going you know, I
Speaker 13: wasn't going for that, you know what I mean, from
Speaker 13: taking to the painting room, blow the blow up, whatever
Speaker 13: we're gonna do.
Speaker 4: I wasn't going for that.
Speaker 13: But I've seen the greatness any young right then what
Speaker 13: I call home, I'm like, man, this young boys gonna
Speaker 13: be nice.
Speaker 4: Fast forward to h three years light on me.
Speaker 13: Watch him go to work and I'm doing my thing,
Speaker 13: and then they traded and put him in a game.
Speaker 13: So his I guess four for you because when he
Speaker 13: really got on right or something like that, I think
Speaker 13: Eddie was gonna he got in the game and he
Speaker 13: never looked back, right, He never looked back.
Speaker 15: But y'all don't know, is that Kobe Bryant rest in
Speaker 15: peace to my dog. He took another level of being
Speaker 15: a defensive standpoint because Gary Payton after practice after practice,
Speaker 15: all star practice, poured us to the side because Cole
Speaker 15: dashed him something. They pulled both of us to the side,
Speaker 15: said let me tell y'all something. Look when you're playing defense,
Speaker 15: and then he went through a thirty minute joint where
Speaker 15: both of us with defense and keeping us between the
Speaker 15: leg and reaching and how to reach and when you
Speaker 15: reach up and just little.
Speaker 5: Tricks of the trade.
Speaker 15: That next time I saw cold after the break he
Speaker 15: was using. It became first team that year. First time
Speaker 15: I seen him, said he used that shit. GPHO saw it.
Speaker 5: He saw it.
Speaker 4: I got his ass, he saw it, Yo, Yeah, I
Speaker 4: saw it.
Speaker 5: This yash nigga, I saw that shit.
Speaker 4: I said, I caught that shit.
Speaker 15: Didn't think I saw that, but I knew that only
Speaker 15: the three of us was part of that.
Speaker 7: So I was like, you you got to you saw shit.
Speaker 5: I thought it was gonna callifight. He ain't caught that shit.
Speaker 15: Wow, Because GP taught us when you rip somebody to
Speaker 15: go through that chest versus using your hand. You see
Speaker 15: this right, He told us to take a step and
Speaker 15: come through your chest and come and then round out.
Speaker 5: There's no way you can protect the ball.
Speaker 15: You can't cross it back once you get in there,
Speaker 15: once I'm in your cab, you can't cross it up.
Speaker 15: You would either have to turn your back. Oh man,
Speaker 15: I saw cold take that first night after the break.
Speaker 15: I saw it. You know, we want no texting, none
Speaker 15: of that back then. But when I first saw him,
Speaker 15: I shot there and stayed it right here. When I
Speaker 15: saw him, he knew exactly what I was talking about.
Speaker 15: Shout out to GP for that.
Speaker 1: Ye tell us about any personal stories you may have
Speaker 1: have a Cob or maybe one of your favorite memories
Speaker 1: of Kobe.
Speaker 8: Well, you know, Matt, I had the pleasure of mentoring
Speaker 8: him for one year when he was in trouble with
Speaker 8: the different case and stuff.
Speaker 16: Uh.
Speaker 8: It was really an enjoyful time for me to mentor him.
Speaker 8: I became a big brother to him. Kobe was just
Speaker 8: a little different. He didn't have no he didn't have
Speaker 8: no ego, but I'm not as a meaning he did
Speaker 8: have egle, but I'm saying an ego and asking ogs
Speaker 8: what to do and well and how to become better.
Speaker 8: And when he came to approach me at the All
Speaker 8: Star Game and asked him how to become how to
Speaker 8: get make first team All Defense, and I sat there
Speaker 8: at the.
Speaker 4: Center court and taught him.
Speaker 8: A lot of things, and he made the first team
Speaker 8: All Defense with me that year. I said, this young
Speaker 8: kid has a lot of different a lot of different
Speaker 8: things in him. He's got a lot of different mentality.
Speaker 8: And he kept asking me stuff every time he played me,
Speaker 8: and I posted him up and I got it. He
Speaker 8: would always come over to me and sneak it in
Speaker 8: my ear. Oh g man, why you keep killing me
Speaker 8: on these post ups? Man?
Speaker 7: You got to teach me that what should I do?
Speaker 8: And that was just a big thing for me to
Speaker 8: hear that and to respect that. And I couldn't do
Speaker 8: nothing but respecting and teach him the game because I
Speaker 8: know I'm a lot older than him, and I was
Speaker 8: gonna be leaving the game soon, and I want to
Speaker 8: see somebody in that game that imitates the things that
Speaker 8: I do.
Speaker 14: And can be dominated at it.
Speaker 8: And this kid was one of them guys, and I
Speaker 8: taught him everything that I needed to tell you. We
Speaker 8: used to stay after practice in LA and he used
Speaker 8: to see I used to teach him the post up game.
Speaker 8: Then he used to fade away. He took it all.
Speaker 8: He'll face you up and go at you. And it
Speaker 8: was things that he did like that. And we used
Speaker 8: to do drills about defense. I used to get him
Speaker 8: and I used to throw a tennis ball back and
Speaker 8: forth and he used to catch with one hand, catch
Speaker 8: with one hand and slide I learned, and he got
Speaker 8: so good at it where he used to guard all
Speaker 8: the top guys. And that's what I started telling him.
Speaker 8: Stopped straying away from all the top guys. And they
Speaker 8: if the top guy on the team is here, you
Speaker 8: guarded guard him all night and then you take his
Speaker 8: heart from him and then you go down.
Speaker 4: And kill him on the other end. And that's what
Speaker 4: he started doing.
Speaker 2: What memories were you take from the two thousand finals
Speaker 2: experience against the Lakers.
Speaker 5: Shock of Monster.
Speaker 2: I mean you't have to go to the finals and
Speaker 2: know that though, I mean, man, but it was different then.
Speaker 17: It was different then because in Orlando it was like
Speaker 17: the younger, more athletic shock and then like later in
Speaker 17: his career, people got to see like the powerful, like
Speaker 17: right in front of the rim shock, but like two thousand,
Speaker 17: like he.
Speaker 7: Was playing d on pick and rolls still.
Speaker 17: Like blocking shots, like he was blocking shots. He started
Speaker 17: getting exactly and he was like will to gives us?
Speaker 17: He was like forty twenty and he's making his free throws.
Speaker 17: But another great thing, man, is Kobe's coming off party.
Speaker 17: We hit us with to get down and laid down.
Speaker 17: That was dope because he was arguing with their bench.
Speaker 17: Like I used to hear Phil yelling at Kobe, pass the.
Speaker 7: Ball, move the ball, get off of it. We're like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 7: get off of it.
Speaker 17: I don't know what game he watched it right, and
Speaker 17: Shaq fouled out.
Speaker 1: Hey, man, Cole.
Speaker 5: I love Cole so much.
Speaker 1: He went to work on us.
Speaker 17: And then he hit that jumper at the top of
Speaker 17: the kid and he did this that wasn't even to us,
Speaker 17: That was to his team because they didn't even believe it.
Speaker 17: He was looking at looking at oh No. When Cole
Speaker 17: first got drafted to the probably shouldn't say I'm just
Speaker 17: trying not to say too much of what I know,
Speaker 17: but like Cole was presented by his own teammate, his
Speaker 17: own teammates, Yeah, I couldn't believe it.
Speaker 14: They was hating on him.
Speaker 1: I'm like, why y'all.
Speaker 14: Gonna hate on him because he was that confident? But
Speaker 14: he ain't.
Speaker 17: He ain't even like go out, he ain't dream.
Speaker 1: He was over at UCLA with us, we was in college.
Speaker 1: He was a Laker on on campus, chilling.
Speaker 17: I worked out with him that one summer, and you know,
Speaker 17: Rob ended up being his agent. I was with them
Speaker 17: and Covid and I, you know, young for that, We're
Speaker 17: gonna go after the work. I'm gonna go get a massage,
Speaker 17: you know what I'm saying. Went to the little spot,
Speaker 17: little burk Spy in Santa Monica or whatever. I went
Speaker 17: and got it in. I'm in LA, got my little
Speaker 17: spot in Santa Monica getting it in. He went back
Speaker 17: to the gym, and I ain't even realized he was
Speaker 17: doing it.
Speaker 5: He was going back.
Speaker 17: To the gym, and so like for him to me
Speaker 17: to watch him from like ninety six when he got
Speaker 17: drafted and wasn't even appreciated by his own teammates to
Speaker 17: like being in that moment where Shaq was ended up
Speaker 17: being like the first forty six minutes of the game
Speaker 17: and he ended up being the last two. And that's
Speaker 17: why I started calling him like the remix of MJ.
Speaker 17: Because to me, he looked like MJ. You sound like MJ.
Speaker 17: Move like MJ.
Speaker 7: You the next best thing.
Speaker 18: Shock fouled out, so like everybody kind of paniccked. So
Speaker 18: they thought, like, Okay, shock foult out. We got to
Speaker 18: move the ball, we gotta get everybody involved, we gotta
Speaker 18: play a different style of basketball. And so I think
Speaker 18: Covid missed like three shots in a row. He like
Speaker 18: took a couple of bad shots whatever, and he missed
Speaker 18: three shots in a row. So guys like, man, you
Speaker 18: got to move the ball. And Field was on him
Speaker 18: a little bit in the time out, and he came out.
Speaker 18: I think he might have scored like twelve straight or something,
Speaker 18: and then he hit that big shot and he was
Speaker 18: like relaxed.
Speaker 4: Like I got this. And after that, after that.
Speaker 7: Series, then that's when he it was over.
Speaker 14: It was over relaxed, I got it.
Speaker 18: So you know, the reporter asked Kobe, He's like, you know,
Speaker 18: your teammates say you don't trust him, you don't, he said,
Speaker 18: how do you feel about that?
Speaker 5: He said, well, I.
Speaker 18: Feel like I got a better chance of making a
Speaker 18: shot out of two people than the guy's wide open.
Speaker 7: You know what I'm saying. You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 4: Serious?
Speaker 5: You know? So you know I love him.
Speaker 7: I love him.
Speaker 1: Talk to us about your relationship with Cob and what
Speaker 1: it was like going to war with him over all
Speaker 1: these years.
Speaker 19: I didn't have a personal relationship with him.
Speaker 20: But you know how killers respect killers.
Speaker 19: You know what I mean? And that's and that's what
Speaker 19: it was. He knew who I was, I know who
Speaker 19: he is. He gave me that push. I gave it
Speaker 19: to him. I love the stories that people give me
Speaker 19: that were teammates, that were friends.
Speaker 20: I love the stories.
Speaker 19: I wouldn't say it bothered me, but I wish I
Speaker 19: could have had a better relationship with him. As far
Speaker 19: as how great other people said he was, I want
Speaker 19: that energy around me. He was just Yeah, he was
Speaker 19: the ultimate. He was the ultimate competitive The man like.
Speaker 2: You lucky out of that six sakes six six. That's
Speaker 2: what he always That's what that man said, you lucky.
Speaker 19: When I heard that, it made me feel so good
Speaker 19: because the respect that.
Speaker 20: That he gave me. It was like, you know, just
Speaker 20: like Max.
Speaker 19: You know, I watched First Take, and you know, I
Speaker 19: listened to Steven Max go at it. A lot of
Speaker 19: people don't rock with Max, but I love Max because Max,
Speaker 19: I like Max, always take up for.
Speaker 2: Me, don't I don't like the other guy, your homeboy.
Speaker 19: Okay, yeah, let's get back on track.
Speaker 20: I would go all the way off, all right.
Speaker 19: But he said something like, if Kobe and somebody had
Speaker 19: a baby, you know, it'll be me, you know whatever.
Speaker 19: And you know, just for people to put me in
Speaker 19: the same sentence with Cole, just just make me feel
Speaker 19: good about my grind, my mom, my family, my teammates, y'all,
Speaker 19: my homeboys.
Speaker 20: Just it's a it's a tribute to y'all. You know
Speaker 20: what I mean.
Speaker 19: For a motherfucker to put me in the same category
Speaker 19: as Kobe Bryant, Like, that's so dope to me.
Speaker 2: Is this story true? Our m uh story that I
Speaker 2: heard that you landed in LA and Kobe picked you
Speaker 2: up and he lack rain rope. Yeah, he picked you
Speaker 2: up because he he wanted he just wanted to chop
Speaker 2: it up with you. And after y'all go out to
Speaker 2: eat or whatever you decide to go out. He tell
Speaker 2: your ass, I'm dropping you off to the hotel.
Speaker 5: This is my stop. I'm gonna work out. I'm going
Speaker 5: to the gym. Is that true story?
Speaker 19: We he took me out to eat and I said,
Speaker 19: what you getting ready to do? I'm going to the club.
Speaker 19: And he said, I'm going to the gym. And that
Speaker 19: was him, That was that was th th That's that's
Speaker 19: that's what made I mean that greatness. That's that where
Speaker 19: that greatness came from because his work atic six.
Speaker 2: Second and h was just But I guarantee you it's
Speaker 2: probably a handful of people on the other team that
Speaker 2: he was playing and he did that that he can't
Speaker 2: because you know, Kobe, he ain't talking to nobody through
Speaker 2: the game, damn sure, not about another team. So I'm
Speaker 2: just saying that sort of respect he had you, He
Speaker 2: ain't gonna pick up.
Speaker 5: Nobody to break that down.
Speaker 1: Hell nah, hell no, studying you the whole time, Yeah,
Speaker 1: studying what he was what she was saying, no bullshit,
Speaker 1: That's how he was. He was a he was a
Speaker 1: sick o when it came to that kind of ship,
Speaker 1: like trying to find any kind of advantage or angle
Speaker 1: he could possibly get. I'm sure you've seen it right away.
Speaker 1: You got a chance play with him. I came and
Speaker 1: play with you guys. What it was like just being
Speaker 1: with him and seeing him.
Speaker 21: Now, yeah, I mean what it was. His whole ship
Speaker 21: is different. I'll be hearing dude say his name like
Speaker 21: he ain't really he was trying to be perfect on
Speaker 21: the court all the time, even doing his like his
Speaker 21: little shooting routine or whatever. You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 21: Even if his footwork, even if he's getting shot, he's
Speaker 21: doing it in a certain way where he's just trying
Speaker 21: to be trying to get better at it. You know,
Speaker 21: his work effict in the morning, man, he was like
Speaker 21: he was a thug at ten in the morning. He
Speaker 21: was going he was just banging on breathlets man, yea
Speaker 21: for real, like my man, constant, take it easy up
Speaker 21: at it. There was no such thing though. It was
Speaker 21: all full steam ahead. Phil Jackson comes in six. What's
Speaker 21: that experience? Like, I'm sure you never had nobody like him.
Speaker 5: You know, I mean that that changed.
Speaker 21: I think just probably the way I looked at the game,
Speaker 21: you know, really not from the from the physical aspect
Speaker 21: from the mental aspect, the mental approach. I mean, you know,
Speaker 21: we used to meditate together, and so if you know
Speaker 21: anything about meditation, that just like prayer in a sense.
Speaker 21: So really we like we all praying together unreligiously. That's deep,
Speaker 21: you know what I mean. So that's gonna build the
Speaker 21: extra bond. Gives us books to read according to your
Speaker 21: personality of who you are, how you want to affect
Speaker 21: your life.
Speaker 1: That's crazy to have read enough books to be able
Speaker 1: to have something for you.
Speaker 21: Understand people that much though, right question how driven was cold?
Speaker 5: And how did that? How did that rub off on you?
Speaker 21: I learned from this dude just by even just room,
Speaker 21: just watching them.
Speaker 5: Man. You know, he said he was better than Mike.
Speaker 5: I know he did. He thought it. He thought it.
Speaker 5: You could tell though he felt that way.
Speaker 22: I said, what, I'm walking through the airport and they
Speaker 22: like Shaquille O'Neil come in to the Miami Heat. I
Speaker 22: was like, damn, we about to be like dope leaving
Speaker 22: the Miami Heat and my name they had a lebar Dave.
Speaker 23: I was like, oh shit, like that's how this worked.
Speaker 23: Like I thought I was here forever. I just bought
Speaker 23: a crib like I can't sell a crib. I just
Speaker 23: bought it, like it was just like all that emotional attachment,
Speaker 23: but that was just that was just a crazy experienced
Speaker 23: one just to be a part of that whole process.
Speaker 23: And then going to Los Angeles and I'll never forget
Speaker 23: Kobe signed a deal for one hundred and thirty plus
Speaker 23: million dollars. I'm at the press conference and it's actually
Speaker 23: a double press conference because they're introducing myself, Brian Grant
Speaker 23: lamar Odom to the city of Los Angeles. And then
Speaker 23: Kobe signed in this deal and I'll never forget, like
Speaker 23: looking at that money. And then the first thing he
Speaker 23: turned to the right said to me was get ready
Speaker 23: to fucking black out, Like get ready to work.
Speaker 22: Out, Like let's take that shit to another level. And
Speaker 22: I'm talking about the blackout sessions. Was crazy. The reason
Speaker 22: why I was an All Star player, the reason why
Speaker 22: I'm in the coaching space is because my time that
Speaker 22: I spent with Kobe Bryant.
Speaker 5: What was he like off the court? Basketball genius? All
Speaker 5: he talked about was the game.
Speaker 22: I started watching film with him on every plane trip,
Speaker 22: just analyzing like the rotations, the schemes, the double teams,
Speaker 22: where they was coming from, how to manipulate the defense.
Speaker 22: I learned the whole bunch from a Bean and also too,
Speaker 22: you know when you talk about life after basketball, he
Speaker 22: gave me like a jewel that stuck with me.
Speaker 5: The roar of the crowd is not for you.
Speaker 22: It's for what you can do, and as soon as
Speaker 22: you can do it, they be cheering for someone else.
Speaker 22: So like, work on your second act. While you're in
Speaker 22: the midst of your first.
Speaker 1: In Western Conference finals against Cold, you guys are right
Speaker 1: there on the doorstep, think about that mess up.
Speaker 24: The greatest man I just that was. That was my
Speaker 24: moment where me and Cole became Before that, we went
Speaker 24: to the Olympics. Before that, we became very close, but
Speaker 24: we became close on some like some disrespectful ship like Cold.
Speaker 2: You know, you know Cold man, you're.
Speaker 24: Going at your neck saying, she to your elbowing you.
Speaker 24: I had my braids back then too, so he.
Speaker 5: Touched my head.
Speaker 14: I'm like, ya, don't.
Speaker 24: Don't touch my head, like you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 24: I don't touch me no more.
Speaker 5: Dog.
Speaker 24: And you know he's smirking, and you know he's doing
Speaker 24: his little ship elbows and O nine came and it
Speaker 24: was like, I mean, we hugged before the game.
Speaker 5: He was like, war, it's war. I said, it's war.
Speaker 24: Like, let's let's get it, like you ain't gonna be
Speaker 24: nothing easy. And I just remember him. He always would
Speaker 24: tell me, I guard you in the fourth because gonna
Speaker 24: make no they ain't gonna call him hill me in
Speaker 24: the fourth, and.
Speaker 14: I just usually try to.
Speaker 24: I used to try to beat him up though you
Speaker 24: know I was bigger than him, so I used to
Speaker 24: try to beat him up, be physical with him. He
Speaker 24: come back elbow and me, I come back elbow on him.
Speaker 24: He laughing talking about that's all you got, you know
Speaker 24: what I'm saying. It was just pushing my button to see.
Speaker 5: Well, I was gonna standing that, you know what I'm saying.
Speaker 24: And that's how like we grew man and we all
Speaker 24: we became who we.
Speaker 7: Are twenty ten.
Speaker 10: Man, I remember that shit more than the year that
Speaker 10: we wanted, because it was like I started five healthy.
Speaker 10: We never lost the we never lost a playoff series,
Speaker 10: and I felt like going into La, we was up,
Speaker 10: We was up three three two, Game six in LA,
Speaker 10: felt like we had the right momentum going. Obviously they
Speaker 10: get Andrew Bonum back, So now I'm playing Andrew Bonum
Speaker 10: ticket planing Mark, I mean.
Speaker 7: Paul Kasol, Yeah, Powell Kassau.
Speaker 10: So the motherfucker matchups is even we down there were
Speaker 10: battling like a motherfucker we going at it. So now
Speaker 10: I tell my motherfucking acl man, And it was the
Speaker 10: worst thing of my life because I didn't think it
Speaker 10: wasn't that I didn't feel like I wasn't gonna bounce back.
Speaker 10: But you just never take going to the finals for
Speaker 10: granted because people people don't understand it's hard to just
Speaker 10: get to the finals, let alone win the championship.
Speaker 7: And I'm like, man, I.
Speaker 10: Might not reach this shit again ever in my life.
Speaker 7: That's why it hurted me.
Speaker 10: And then having to sit out Game seven and watch
Speaker 10: us have a fourteen point lead in the fourth quarter
Speaker 10: and the Lakers walk the shit down to win the
Speaker 10: championship and watch them celebrate on our home on their
Speaker 10: home court, and us having to walk through the stadium
Speaker 10: hear and all that shit, the bus ride going to
Speaker 10: the plane and shit decorated with La gilt. But I'm
Speaker 10: gonna tell you something. Kobe was six for twenty four
Speaker 10: of that game. But this is how bad he wanted.
Speaker 10: Every team that won that won the game in that
Speaker 10: series won the rebound in battle. Kobe had fifteen motherfucker
Speaker 10: rebounds at the two guard position. So that goes to
Speaker 10: that's another testimony to his greatness because people always think
Speaker 10: everybody want to talk about the scoring.
Speaker 7: But like he was off, but he said, you know.
Speaker 1: What, he would do whatever he will do whatever it
Speaker 1: takes to win.
Speaker 7: He had he had.
Speaker 10: Eight offensive rebounds that led to him going to the
Speaker 10: free throw line like that. That's like, motherfucker wanted that shit, man.
Speaker 10: And like today man says, we're thinking back on it
Speaker 10: and when we lost our brother. I ain't even just
Speaker 10: saying this because you know it's a front. This is
Speaker 10: how I feel when people ask me about that twenty ten.
Speaker 7: Now I'm at ease with it.
Speaker 10: I'm like, you know what shit I see I Kobe
Speaker 10: could have that motherfucker.
Speaker 7: Man, I'm glad he took.
Speaker 1: When you reflect on Kobe and his memory with what
Speaker 1: stands out.
Speaker 5: Man, his realness, his realness. Man, he was misunderstood. Man. People.
Speaker 25: I asked him one time, Matt, like I asked him.
Speaker 25: I said, man, why he's such an asshole. I asked
Speaker 25: him that. He said, you really want to know you
Speaker 25: know how he was and he said to me, he said, Phil, Man,
Speaker 25: some of my teammates don't understand the work. He said, so,
Speaker 25: I see dudes walk into practice ten minutes before practice
Speaker 25: and they leave right after. Why the fuck am I
Speaker 25: going to pass them to basketball? I don't respect the
Speaker 25: work ethic. I'm in here busting my ass every day
Speaker 25: trying to perfect my craft, and these dudes, these dudes
Speaker 25: don't want to work on the game. I don't trust them,
Speaker 25: so I'm not gonna pass them the basketball. I'm gonna
Speaker 25: ride him hard every day. Made perfect sense when he
Speaker 25: really broke it down as to why he is the
Speaker 25: way he is with certain dudes, I was just like, man,
Speaker 25: I respect that, bro, I respect that, but his realness
Speaker 25: in the sense of, you know, he told me. He
Speaker 25: was like, look, man, you have a you have an
Speaker 25: ability to connect with people. Don't do not concern yourself
Speaker 25: with what people think about you. And he told me that, man,
Speaker 25: and just and that sunk in. It sunk in. He said, look,
Speaker 25: you have to move the way you move to make
Speaker 25: sure you do your job, make sure you professional. Make
Speaker 25: sure you study the game, but don't be concerned with
Speaker 25: people think about you. And that stuck with me ever
Speaker 25: since since I've been in this league. He was a
Speaker 25: pro with that.
Speaker 1: I laughed when you said the five forty five thing
Speaker 1: because I automatically knew five forty five in the morning
Speaker 1: because I used to have to go out to Orange
Speaker 1: County and what time you want me to meet you
Speaker 1: at the track? Five fifteen. I'm like, nigga's still dark
Speaker 1: and you're talking about moment I got run. We got
Speaker 1: to run, then we gotta hit the gym. We hit
Speaker 1: the gym and lift so hard I felt like I
Speaker 1: couldn't lift my arms up, and then we got to
Speaker 1: go shoot for like two hours at like the work.
Speaker 25: You've experienced it, Matt, I ran through you. You experienced
Speaker 25: people don't. People don't really understand like what that was
Speaker 25: about with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he respected you. He fucked with you if they
Speaker 1: like I said, he had had me come out there,
Speaker 1: we go work out and we go have breakfast and everything.
Speaker 1: And like I said, I know he didn't let too
Speaker 1: many people do that.
Speaker 5: You know what I mean.
Speaker 1: To be able to get that side of him was dope.
Speaker 1: And it's funny because I asked him the same questions,
Speaker 1: like why don't you ever show I didn't say be
Speaker 1: an asshole, like wyonn't you show the world how dope
Speaker 1: you are and how you are with us? He looked
Speaker 1: at me and he said, I can't let the motherfucker
Speaker 1: see that. I say that for Kobe.
Speaker 26: I say, Kobe was one of still one of the
Speaker 26: hardest guys I've ever had to car late.
Speaker 5: In his career, no question, because question remember.
Speaker 26: When I played him, he shot the ball about forty
Speaker 26: damn times. But it was amazing just to see like
Speaker 26: his craft at the same time, like he still had
Speaker 26: he still had the footwork.
Speaker 14: It's plum work.
Speaker 6: Look look how many points she scored his last game.
Speaker 6: I mean, that's that's that's the hell lot right there.
Speaker 4: He had a ratchet.
Speaker 1: I tell you alone, m That's that's why I tell
Speaker 1: people they ask me who the hardest for me to
Speaker 1: guard was him, because like you said, it was the
Speaker 1: foot work, it was the skill work he had. And
Speaker 1: then you knowing that when he takes that one or
Speaker 1: two dribbles to the baseline, right, he's gonna shot fake you,
Speaker 1: But you still fucking jump because he'll shot fake you
Speaker 1: seven times because he's not gonna pass, you know what
Speaker 1: I mean, Like, if he gets in that move, he'll
Speaker 1: shot fake you until you jump and fallom. And it
Speaker 1: was just like, god, damn cold. That shit is crazy, bro,
Speaker 1: you know it's crazy.
Speaker 14: Have you y'all heard him? Y'all heard him? Heard him
Speaker 14: hiss before?
Speaker 5: Huh?
Speaker 1: Yes, when he needs the Yeah, that's that's when you
Speaker 1: have to the ball. So crazy. Yeah.
Speaker 14: So it's my first game playing against him.
Speaker 5: He's on the wing.
Speaker 14: I think I want to say Sasha had the ball
Speaker 14: all of a sudden, All of a sudden, he says.
Speaker 6: That's it, that's him, that's cold, And all of a
Speaker 6: sudden the ball was in his hand.
Speaker 14: I said, oh my god, that's all you gotta do
Speaker 14: to get the ball.
Speaker 1: Yo, It don't matter how loud the arena is.
Speaker 4: Mama, noise, noise.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to tell you, it don't matter how loud
Speaker 1: the arena is. You gonna hear that motherfucking hissing. The
Speaker 1: ball better be in his hands than like the next
Speaker 1: three to five seconds. And if you haven't, hey, if
Speaker 1: you have the nerve to if you have the nerve
Speaker 1: to shoot, and miss with after he hisses, go back
Speaker 1: on film and just watch Code's face. If that motherfucker
Speaker 1: hisses and you take a shot and miss, he might
Speaker 1: look at you crazy if you make that bitch, But
Speaker 1: if you miss that motherfucker if looks at Killboy, you
Speaker 1: be struck dead on the court that he used to
Speaker 1: crack me up man.
Speaker 27: As far as cod go man, he was super cool.
Speaker 27: I enjoyed competing with him and just just being around him.
Speaker 27: You know what I'm saying. It's just a different energy
Speaker 27: when you're around him and you want to flow with him.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I said, I mean I got a chance to,
Speaker 1: like you, play with Ai, play with Chris Paul. Super
Speaker 1: competitive dudes, but to me, there's no one more competit.
Speaker 27: Yeah see, I didn't. I wish you get that. We
Speaker 27: didn't get We didn't. We didn't get that part of
Speaker 27: the experience. Like every once in a while, yeah did
Speaker 27: he would say some ship did. The whole room was
Speaker 27: like like, we had a fun He's gonna be mad
Speaker 27: at you for this, but look we had a blowout.
Speaker 4: We got blue out uh.
Speaker 27: At Portland and he came in the locker room and
Speaker 27: he was like, from now on out. Every time down
Speaker 27: the court, I touched the ball. Y'all gonna learn what
Speaker 27: it's like to play with Kobe Bean fucking Bright, and
Speaker 27: I'm looking like this mother serious. But so Nick Young
Speaker 27: played for lass. We go, we showered ship, we come back.
Speaker 27: Nick walk in the locker room to y'all better throw
Speaker 27: that mother fuck the ball and it's.
Speaker 7: Gonna be some ship around here.
Speaker 27: So like, Nick never took anything serious though, but we
Speaker 27: just got the ship kicked out of us, and Code
Speaker 27: wasn't going for it, you know what I'm saying. And
Speaker 27: so I just think mentally, like he meant that ship,
Speaker 27: you know what I'm saying. I just think it at
Speaker 27: point's body just didn't give him what he wanted.
Speaker 28: When I got to play with Kobe for you know,
Speaker 28: a few you know, we didn't get to we both
Speaker 28: got hurt. But having to share in the locker room
Speaker 28: with him at the end of our career, it was
Speaker 28: an eye opener in a sense because you forget, we
Speaker 28: got drafted together. We played against each other our whole careers.
Speaker 28: You know, you I thought of him as a competitor.
Speaker 28: I thought as the competition, you know, predominantly, So when
Speaker 28: I came to the Lakers, and you could see the
Speaker 28: like the worship that young players had for him. You know,
Speaker 28: it was an eye opener because I never had that
Speaker 28: perspective of him. But that's exactly how I was with Jordan,
Speaker 28: if you know what I mean, Like when I came
Speaker 28: in the league. So I'd been there, you know, i'd
Speaker 28: been there, I'd done what they were doing to Kobe.
Speaker 28: How exciting it was to play with Kobe. I'd done
Speaker 28: having a chance to play against Jordan, you know. And
Speaker 28: and so to get more from from Mike. He doesn't
Speaker 28: owe anybody anything but to get more of him, for
Speaker 28: him to you know, to make the speech at Kobe's service,
Speaker 28: for him to do the film, for him to you know,
Speaker 28: just be a little bit more opening. He's probably, like
Speaker 28: you said, relaxed. You know, it's amazing for us. You know,
Speaker 28: it's it's a different time, right, Like this might be it.
Speaker 28: We may not get nothing anything else out of him,
Speaker 28: but that's why this is so special, and we just
Speaker 28: got to like we just got to enjoy it.
Speaker 1: Best Kobe memory on or off the court.
Speaker 9: Yeah, so I got a I got a good Kobe story.
Speaker 9: So my rookie year, we're playing here in Staples Center,
Speaker 9: and Michale tells us before like look, you're like, he
Speaker 9: pulls me aside, like you're gonna see crazy people. You're
Speaker 9: gonna see celebrities there like lock In and Kobe. He's
Speaker 9: gonna try and bust your ass, like he's going to
Speaker 9: be like offended. You're guarding him.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, I'm like cool, Like I love it.
Speaker 4: I'm flattering to guard him. So I go there first.
Speaker 9: So I'm just looking at the court side. My head's
Speaker 9: on a swivel. Just I've never seen this before, right,
Speaker 9: I'm like, God, damn, this is great.
Speaker 4: All of them is there and this.
Speaker 1: Chicks there, I'm like wow.
Speaker 9: So I'm already distracted, and of course I'm starting on
Speaker 9: Kobe and Jordan Hill that year had got traded from
Speaker 9: Houston to La so I had known him as a
Speaker 9: little side note. And fourth quarter comes around and Kobe
Speaker 9: looks at me and he's like, are you guys staying
Speaker 9: the night tonight? And I'm like, I'm like looking at mcale,
Speaker 9: make sure he's not looking at me for and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 9: like what up, Like I'm like, oh, he's doing it
Speaker 9: like he's mister Mia Gamy right now, it's like he's
Speaker 9: doing I'm like, yeah, what's up, we're staying. He goes,
Speaker 9: I'll set you up like I'll get your number from
Speaker 9: Jade Hill and like if you want to go out tonight.
Speaker 9: I'm like stop, Like you're like I know what you're doing,
Speaker 9: Like come on. McHale's over there like Grilla me like
Speaker 9: stop talking to this motherfucker. So I go ends up.
Speaker 9: He ends up just going off. He's like forty that
Speaker 9: game we lose. After the game, you know, like right
Speaker 9: there in La Live, we go to like Katsuya and
Speaker 9: we're with all the ogs, right, We're with like Camby
Speaker 9: down and they're all taking me out. I get a
Speaker 9: text and he goes, you're all set at supper club
Speaker 9: dash Mamba and I'm like I'm like I'm like looking around,
Speaker 9: like all right, who's fucking with me? Like no, no way?
Speaker 9: And I'm like, Courney Lee is my guy? Right, I'm
Speaker 9: like showing him like is this real? Like you guys
Speaker 9: number like and I write them back. I'm like okay,
Speaker 9: like like are you like I said, sound like are
Speaker 9: you comment? He's like no, I can't make it, but
Speaker 9: my guy will hit you up. Got next text? Hey,
Speaker 9: you're set up. Let me know what you need, a
Speaker 9: supper club whatever. So at this point I'm telling the table,
Speaker 9: I'm like, guys.
Speaker 5: I got you.
Speaker 4: Like he's my guy.
Speaker 1: He set it up.
Speaker 9: Let's go, JB. Your staff is there, like I'm bringing coaches,
Speaker 9: I'm bringing trainers. This is I got it, and we
Speaker 9: have a blast. Right, we have the craziest night ever.
Speaker 9: Supper club was the Tit was the club where the
Speaker 9: tables were beds.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 9: I was like it was nuts and two am rolls
Speaker 9: around and granted, I'm with these guys that made hundreds
Speaker 9: of millions dollars and this waitress Bee lines right to
Speaker 9: me with the check and I'm like, oh shit. And
Speaker 9: my dad's my financial advisor at the time. He would
Speaker 9: be on my ass if I like value size, combo
Speaker 9: meal Chick fil A, and he's bringing me. She's bringing
Speaker 9: me this bill for god knows how much, and I'm like,
Speaker 9: oh man, I open it and it's like twenty two
Speaker 9: thousand dollars.
Speaker 1: And now at this point, I'm like I'm sick.
Speaker 29: I'm physically like no, no, like I can't do this
Speaker 29: because car's gonna bounce and I'll never forget this chick
Speaker 29: looks at me, hands me a pen and says, sign
Speaker 29: for mister Bryant.
Speaker 9: And I'm like what, I'm like, video the whole thing.
Speaker 9: I'm like, I'm like, signing Kobe brought. I sign Kobe
Speaker 9: Bryant on a twenty two thousand dollars club bill and everyone,
Speaker 9: by the way, they say he's tough, he's gonna go
Speaker 9: at you. I'm like, this dude was cool as fuck.
Speaker 9: He was he was awesome. It was a crazy, crazy time.
Speaker 1: See I got a picture of it.
Speaker 7: I still got his number.
Speaker 1: I'm like, I love the way the story went though,
Speaker 1: because I thought because Kobe wasn't asked too, he would
Speaker 1: have been nucky with the bill and from the weekend before,
Speaker 1: I was like, oh, he flipped on you. That's our guy.
Speaker 5: I love that.
Speaker 1: That's a dope, best story.
Speaker 5: Nothing but love for him.
Speaker 2: That's probably my favorite Kobe story.
Speaker 5: Yeah, that's a good one. Yeah.
Speaker 30: Look with Kobe, like like with Lebron, Like when I
Speaker 30: got it Lebron back then, my attitude was I'm not
Speaker 30: gonna crash the offensive class and we shoot, I'm gonna
Speaker 30: find him. I'm not gonna let him get out in
Speaker 30: the full head of steam. So I'm not gonna let
Speaker 30: him turn the corner and go right and get to
Speaker 30: the rim. I'm gonna make him make contested jump shots.
Speaker 30: And I'm not gonna foul if he posts me up.
Speaker 30: Don't help because he beat you with his passing as much.
Speaker 30: He's so like, you know, he had a game plan
Speaker 30: and I actually did, Okay, I mean Lebron would have moments,
Speaker 30: but like you know, I didn't have a strategy for
Speaker 30: I didn't know what to do, and so sometimes man
Speaker 30: like I would just he go up a shot, I'll
Speaker 30: just hit his arm, like, just hit his arm and
Speaker 30: just like you know. And the problem too is I
Speaker 30: couldn't go back at him because that my role. You know,
Speaker 30: in Phoenix, Nash had the ball in his hand. So
Speaker 30: I'm stuck in the corner and I'm not you know,
Speaker 30: I'm not a spot up shooter. So he was hard
Speaker 30: to defend. But in that moment, man like I a
Speaker 30: couple of times I guess right, like, I'm like, like
Speaker 30: he's gonna go right, he's gonna shot fake, I'm not
Speaker 30: I know what he's gonna do, and I'm like and
Speaker 30: then you know, you know.
Speaker 1: How hard it is saying this, and when you usually
Speaker 1: square it off against him, you're saying that in your
Speaker 1: head as yours.
Speaker 30: I knew he wanted to go right, and I knew
Speaker 30: he had a great ball fake, and I've seen him
Speaker 30: do it before. And so he at one shot right
Speaker 30: in front of our bench. We tapped Alvin on them,
Speaker 30: and so he hit a touch shot on me before that,
Speaker 30: and I tried to deny him the ball, but he
Speaker 30: gets it, he goes right.
Speaker 5: I go with him.
Speaker 7: He shot faced.
Speaker 4: I don't go for it.
Speaker 30: I actually I get closer into him. I go up
Speaker 30: when he goes up. You know how hard it is
Speaker 30: to do a shot fake reload from three and somebody
Speaker 30: in your grind. And I couldn't be any closer to
Speaker 30: him without fouling man, this dude, Like I was like,
Speaker 30: I mean, I was actually proud of the defense I played,
Speaker 30: Like I'm thinking I could have done anything other than
Speaker 30: just prevent him fro getting the ball. But he was
Speaker 30: the best player I played against. And I say this
Speaker 30: respectfully with George, I didn't guard Jordan Pippen and I
Speaker 30: matched up, But the best player that I played against,
Speaker 30: hands down, was Kobe.
Speaker 31: Kobe throughout his career, which just he would have he
Speaker 31: would either shoot me a text. And it's funny because
Speaker 31: having Kobe number in your phone and not abusing it
Speaker 31: was like you had to ask some real restraints because
Speaker 31: I had so many like niggas Kobe, like wanted to
Speaker 31: talk to Kobe every day, you know what I'm saying,
Speaker 31: even if even if, like you know, you had obviously
Speaker 31: different mothers and fathers, like you still felt like he
Speaker 31: was a brother, you know what I'm saying, because anytime
Speaker 31: he talks to him, he always had some game. And
Speaker 31: one thing that Kobe asked me, he was like, Yo,
Speaker 31: when you're gonna like get on your business and step
Speaker 31: upon you know what I'm saying. From the from the streets,
Speaker 31: and I was just like never he was like ah
Speaker 31: see see and just you know, he'd be like all right,
Speaker 31: I get with you. But one thing about Kobe in
Speaker 31: the documentary, every time I seen him, every time we talk,
Speaker 31: he would just always tell me how much that album
Speaker 31: meant to him. But even more so than the documentary,
Speaker 31: it was the doctor's advocate for him. The doctor's advocate
Speaker 31: was the one. You know what I'm saying, He was
Speaker 31: just like yo, like one blood and like I work
Speaker 31: out every day. Every morning, I'm up and I throw
Speaker 31: this on. And every time I came to the Staples
Speaker 31: Center to see Kobe, like he if he saw me,
Speaker 31: I don't know. I ain't never seen a nigga with
Speaker 31: a phone in.
Speaker 5: His short it was, yeah, it was.
Speaker 31: It would start running, man, And so like I still
Speaker 31: feel indebted to Kobe just for his contribution to the city,
Speaker 31: for him never wavering from you know, like playing for
Speaker 31: the Lakers, never being traded, never abandoned the ship, like
Speaker 31: just taking it in the last game.
Speaker 5: Oh my god, I said that. Yo.
Speaker 31: I watched it. I watched the niggas double team. It
Speaker 31: wasn't easy. I watched him get sixty on the way out.
Speaker 31: And it's like that, like when we talk about Kobe,
Speaker 31: I mean, under these glasses, if I say to say
Speaker 31: his name too much, I'm gonna start crying. All though,
Speaker 31: because it's like you would never I would. You would
Speaker 31: have never thought in a million years that Kobe would
Speaker 31: meet an untimely Demid.
Speaker 5: It's a superhero.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So the end of twenty nineteen, you unfortunately lost
Speaker 1: your mother. The beginning of twenty twenty, you lost some
Speaker 1: another mentor to you, David Stern, and then we all
Speaker 1: lost Kobe the end of that January talk to us
Speaker 1: just about where you were as a person outside of business.
Speaker 1: But obviously business had to continue. But as a person,
Speaker 1: that's a lot for anyone to handle. Yeah, it's.
Speaker 16: And I'm glad the way you said that we all
Speaker 16: lost Kobe, because when people would say to me and
Speaker 16: express their condolences, I would correct them and say, hey,
Speaker 16: the world lost somebody really special. And just him as
Speaker 16: a friend and as a motivator and watching him as
Speaker 16: a father and a husband. You know, he just he
Speaker 16: was a leader and you know he's irreplaceable. And the
Speaker 16: knowledge that he shared with people, I had no idea
Speaker 16: until after he passed it. I mean I knew he
Speaker 16: helped basketball players, but every he helped everybody, people in
Speaker 16: every kind of sport, and even me when I think
Speaker 16: back to you know, he after my father passed away
Speaker 16: in twenty thirteen, he invited me to have lunch and
Speaker 16: I you know, I met him down in Orange County
Speaker 16: and he brought Gianna with him and he said, I
Speaker 16: hope it's okay with you. I brought Gianna because I
Speaker 16: want her to see a really powerful woman and I
Speaker 16: realized later that really what he was doing was motivating
Speaker 16: me absolutely, And he's just he was, you know, somebody
Speaker 16: that I valued and will continue to value. And I
Speaker 16: hope that what he stood for, and you know, the
Speaker 16: lessons that he taught people like me, I will continue
Speaker 16: to pass on to other people, and I think his
Speaker 16: legend will continue to grow.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we had an opportunity one of his last, if
Speaker 1: not his last interviews. We went out there and interviewed him,
Speaker 1: and before we even got to the interview, he brought
Speaker 1: me and Jack into his office and he was just
Speaker 1: so adamant on putting the first twenty years of his
Speaker 1: greatness to bed and being that next but what's my
Speaker 1: next act? The businessman, the father, the you know everything
Speaker 1: else he was involved in. But it was amazing to
Speaker 1: me just all the other things he was into. And
Speaker 1: he was, you know, at the time, finishing his I
Speaker 1: think his second or third children's novel, and he had
Speaker 1: signed some books for me and the boys, and you know,
Speaker 1: we asked him how he got into it and just
Speaker 1: the detail he would give us in the getting a
Speaker 1: chance to play with them, the veracity he the approach
Speaker 1: he took, the basketball, he took that same approach to business,
Speaker 1: you know, and it was scary because he was such
Speaker 1: a competitor on the court, but he was even more
Speaker 1: competitive off the court, because it's like, Okay, the Kobe
Speaker 1: I was in the past doesn't mean shit now, Like
Speaker 1: I got to kind of reinvent myself and and and
Speaker 1: move forward. And that really just touched me. But you know,
Speaker 1: obviously we lost, we all lost something very special.