Kobe Bryant is widely known as a player who was willing to take any shot available to him. The joke of “just get the rebound” was less of an exaggeration than people might think. Bryant fervently believed that any attempt he took was a good one, no matter if he had three or four players guarding him. In that way, one would think that the shooting guard would excel in one-on-one battles, but that is apparently incorrect.
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John Salley, a former NBA player and four-time champ, played with Bryant on the Lakers for two years in 1999 and 2000, after heading overseas for nearly half a decade. He also shared a team with Michael Jordan in Chicago for a year before once again finding a new home. All in all, Salley played for five franchises.
During that time in LA, however, the two wings would play each other every day for months on end. Despite the frequency, Bryant was rarely the victor.
When asked about how many times they’d played, Salley wore a pondering look before telling the story. “[We probably played] 30, maybe 40 times. I won every single one. You know why? It’s because I wouldn’t play two games. We’re gonna play one game, one-on-one, my ball first. I did it every day.”
Salley was a middling at best bench player. How could he possibly beat a player who would go on to win the MVP and be considered among some of the greatest ever?
While Salley has maintained this stance over the years, Bryant was always certain of his own supremacy at 1-0n-1 games.
“No one. I’m not trying to be like, you know, but that’s what I do,” said a much older Kobe years later during a press conference when asked about his dominance against a single opponent.
However, during an episode of the All the Smoke podcast, Salley brought out a video from the Best Damn Sports Show episode that featured Kobe. During the clip, Bryant confessed, “he [Salley] used to beat me every day” after being nudged by the older guard.
Sometimes, it’s the lies we tell ourselves to make it to the next day. In this way, Kobe was no different than anyone else. When faced with accepting two straight years of defeat to a foe you think you are individually far better than, either you acknowledge you were never that good, or you figure out an excuse.
There has never been a universe where Kobe Bryant admits he wasn’t that good, so of course, he chose the latter. That choice ended up leading to tons of individual hardware and a storied resume with the Lakers. That’s probably a worthwhile trade.
