“I Ain’t Want to Play With Kobe Bryant”: Former Celtics Player Blames Jeremy Lin’s Experience For Not Wanting to Play For the Lakers

Jeff Teague came up with an interesting revelation about Kobe Bryant during his recent appearance on the Club 520 podcast. Asked about the teams he would have liked to play for in the NBA, Teague had said that he would have wanted to play for a big-city team, such as the New York Knicks or the Chicago Bulls.

When suggested that he would also have done well playing alongside Kobe Bryant at the LA Lakers, Teague refused. He claimed that the Lakers were interested in bringing him during his time with the Atlanta Hawks, back in 2014. However, he was not interested, and his determination only strengthened when Kobe made a few comments about his then-teammate Jeremy Lin, in the middle of a game.

Teague explained that Kobe had pointed at Jeremy Lin during a game, and accused him of “leaving him alone with s**t.”I ain’t going to lie, I ain’t want to play with Kobe bro. After the game, he was like, ‘you left me with this sh*t?’ I was like, what? You left me with this shit. He was pointing to Jeremy Lin. I was like, ‘oh sh*t, like, what?’ He was like, you was supposed to come out here and you left me with this sh*t,” Teague said.

The 2021 NBA champion later agreed that he could’ve also had a lot of fun playing alongside Kobe. However, he said that the Lakers back then were not “lit,” and were in a rebuilding phase with Kobe as the only major star. Talking about Bryant’s comments towards Jeremy Lin, Teague claimed that he would have been mad if they were made about him.

“I been hard bro. I ain’t want to be Jeremy Lin. He would have been saying to somebody, you left me with this sh*t? I would have been mad as hell,” Teague said.

Jeff Teague also claimed that he understood Kobe’s desire to win, which was basically why he had made the comments mid-game. Talking about how Bryant was simply “built differently,” he maintained that he never had any pressing desire to play for the Lakers.

Kobe Bryant regularly balled out against Jeff Teague

Jeff Teague might not have wanted to be teammates with the illustrious Lakers legend. However, he habitually saw firsthand the kind of impact Bryant had on games.

In the 9 contests the two played against each other in, Kobe averaged 23.2 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.2 assists, despite all of the clashes coming after he turned 30, according to StatMuse.

Teague on the other hand, was not quite at his best against Bryant’s Lakers during the 9 games. That of course, will be down to the fact that he faced Bryant and the Lakers from 2009 to 2015, which were the initial years of his career.

Teague averaged 11.1 points, 3.6 assists, and 1.2 rebounds, which proved enough for Bryant himself to want to be teammates with the then-youngster. However, despite the obvious brilliance, it seems as if Teague himself was never intent on playing alongside Kobe, despite recognizing and accepting his greatness.