“Rasheed Wallace knocked me to the ground and tried to f**k me up”: When Kobe Bryant revealed how vets would give him his ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment

Kobe Bryant talked about how Portland’s Rasheed Wallace tried to bash him as a rookie in the league by knocking him to the ground. 

Kobe Bryant knew from the get-go that he was going to go at every single player in the league to establish himself as a threat on both ends of the floor. It took him merely a year to make it to the All-Star Game and be the talk of the Eastern Conference locker room, with ‘that Laker boy’ being his moniker for the night. 

The aggressiveness coupled with his confidence led to Kobe becoming a force to be reckoned with, with less than a half decade’s worth of experience in the NBA. Along the way, guys like Kevin Garnett and Michael Jordan put out a helping hand while also confirming his ‘one-of-a-kind’ tenacity.

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Being several years away from being at the legal age to drink, Kobe Bryant shot 4 straight airballs in a Playoff game against the Utah Jazz his rookie season with Shaquille O’Neal on the mend. This goes to show just how unshakeable the eventual Lakers legend was from the very beginning. 

Kobe Bryant on Rasheed Wallace fouling him hard. 

Every player has a ‘Welcome to the NBA’ moment that establishes the fact that they most certainly are in the big leagues in comparison to either the college or high school level. Many players have several such moments and Kobe Bryant confirmed during an interview with ESPN in his 17th season that one of his involved Rasheed Wallace. 

“During my rookie year, we were in Portland and I drove into the lane and Rasheed Wallace knocked me to the ground and stared at me. He tried to f**k me up but I wasn’t going to have it. I got right back up and drove even harder the next time. I really let people know early that I wasn’t the guy you could do that to.” 

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Rasheed Wallace and Kobe Bryant shared a friendly relationship for a majority of their NBA careers but it didn’t stop them from butting heads on the big stages. The two most memorable matchups between the two would have to be the 2000 WCF and the 2004 NBA Finals, with Wallace’s Blazers losing in 7 and his Pistons winning in 5.