If you ever needed to hear a story about Kobe Bryant’s competitive spirit, Carmelo Anthony has just the tale for you. Melo spoke about The Black Mamba during a 2024 edition of his 7 PM in Brooklyn podcast. What else could you learn about Bryant that hasn’t already been told? He didn’t really like J.J. Redick very much, according to Anthony.
Advertisement
“I remember Kobe couldn’t stand J.J. Redick,” said Melo at the time. The setting of his story was a practice during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Team USA coach Michael Krzyzewski, better known as Coach K, was hyping up Redick’s hard work to the team. That went over fine with everyone, except for Kobe.
“Kobe couldn’t stand J.J. Redick in practice because he got tired of Coach K talking about J.J. Redick.” Redick was on the Magic at the time and only two seasons into his NBA career. Meanwhile, Bryant had been in the league over a decade and already had three championships to his name. You’d think that Kobe didn’t have anything to prove. You’d be wrong.
The Mamba’s competitive edge got sharpened by Coach K’s words. “Kobe took it very personal to the point where he was running through screens in practice,” recalled Anthony. “He was denying J.J. the ball. He was fouling the sh*t out J.J.” Melo later joked that when he asked Bryant why he was being so mean to the Duke alumnus, he fired back “f**k that motherf***er.”
Listen to this story from Carmelo Anthony about how Kobe couldn’t stand JJ Redick, so much so that he refused to let him score in a Team USA practice scrimmage.
How do you think Kobe would feel about JJ being the coach of the Lakers today? pic.twitter.com/53cupiDjAf
— NBA Strife ツ (@strifeomg) May 5, 2025
Anthony and the crew were laughing, thinking about how Kobe put that amount of pressure on a young J.J. “His competitiveness kicked in based on what someone else was saying? What your coach was saying?”
How did Redick react though? Well…he called Bryant what he’s been called 1000s of times before. The best player in the world.
Redick considered The Black Mamba the greatest player he’s ever guarded
It probably wouldn’t have done Redick any good to smack-talk Bryant, who many consider to be on the Mount Rushmore of greatest shooting guards of all time. Instead, he’s given the now deceased Hall of Famer the rightful credit and respect.
“He’s (Kobe Bryant) the greatest player I ever guarded,” said the now Lakers head coach during an old interview with Andrew Schultz. Redick later added LeBron James, Steph Curry, and Kevin Durant to that list, even though he never personally guarded LeGOAT.
This story isn’t surprising in the long list of unsurprising Black Mamba tales. Many remember what Kobe did to his really good friend, Pau Gasol during the Olympic Games in 2008. Redick should consider himself lucky that all Kobe did was embarrass him during practice.
