“Every time Kobe Bryant and I played each other, we wanted to one-up the other”: Ray Allen talks about the intense battles with the Lakers’ legend during the course of their career

Ray Allen states his battles with Kobe Bryant would be heated and that the two always wanted to one-up each other.

Kobe Bryant and Ray Allen were two of the most distinguished players from the 1996 Draft Class. The latter retired as one of the best three-point shooters in the history of the game and the former, well he went on to hang his boots as one of the greatest sporting icons in the world.

With both of them playing for almost the same amount of time, the opponents played several games against each other. These constant battles created a little friction between the two. There even was a phase where both the stars absolutely despised each other.

Back in 2004, Kobe had this to say about Ray:

“Don’t even put me and that dude in the same breath.”

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Years after their retirement, the 18-year veteran spoke about his heated rivalry with The Black Mamba:

“We did not like each other. You know Kobe and I, we’re always coming at each other every chance we got. I appreciate, like Kobe, I knew every time I shot the ball over him, he was gonna come back down, he was gonna shoot. It was always back-and-forth between him and I.”

“Kobe Bryant and I were successful in our own right”: Ray Allen

In a Q&A interview with NBA, Allen spoke about Kobe and how the two would try to one-up the other whenever they took on the court. Allen further said:

“Kobe and I were drafted together (in 1996). He wanted to prove he was going to be a player. There was a little jabbing at each other. Every time we played each other, we wanted to one-up each other. I think he knew I was drafted ahead of him (Allen was drafted fifth and Bryant taken 13th) and he wanted to prove he was better and was going to have a greater impact than me.

I wanted to go at him and prove what happened (in the Draft) was because that’s what was supposed to happen. We were successful in our own right. It was epic to face each other in the 2008 and 2010 Finals, playing for the two most storied franchises. It was great theater.”

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Kobe and Allen faced each other a whopping 50 times throughout the course of their careers. Not only did Bryant win more games (29-21), he even outscored (25.1-18.7), grabbed more rebounds (5-4.3), dished more assists (4.5-3.8), stole the ball more (1.5-1.2), and handed more blocks (0.4-0.2) than Ray.

However, as Allen stated – both these superstars were successful in their own way. We have been blessed to be able to witness the most elite shooting guards entertain us for almost two decades.