LeBron James is often considered the face of the NBA post the Michael Jordan era and was probably the best player in the league for more than two decades. However, his impact fell short when it came to Kobe Bryant. The Los Angeles Lakers player was a different animal on the basketball court and the fans loved his competitive fire. Former NBA player and two-time All-Star – Baron Davis, talked about his impact on the ‘Club 520 Podcast‘ through a pick-up game in the Drew League.
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The ‘Drew League’ is a pro-am basketball league held every summer in Los Angeles. In 2011, due to the NBA lockout, the league saw many NBA players making appearances in Drew League games. During the podcast, Baron Davis narrated a story about the difference between the impact Kobe Bryant had versus LeBron James using a 2011 Drew League game as an example. He said, “I had brought LeBron the day before, literally the day before. [I’ll] show you Kobe power though. Find out LeBron at the Drew, everybody going crazy right? At 6 o’clock, yo Kobe coming up here tomorrow. It was Monday. So what? Kobe said he wanted to get a game in. I was like all right, who going to play? I go out of town, everybody and their mama showed up. It was Monday.”
Davis talked about the impact Kobe Bryant had on the city of Los Angeles. There were levels to Bryant’s influence, compared to any other player in the city. The NBA player goes on to explain his impact and says, “LeBron, we brought him to the drew to play in the game. Kobe was sitting at home, like ‘Hold on, let’s set this game up for me’. Every pro, every young pro, came out and I think that turned the corner for LA. Because now like Kobe was right there. You have never seen Kobe. Especially the young dudes, you don’t never seen Kobe. That’s Kobe. Kobe came to the hood, by himself. On his own. On the East side. Kobe coming to the East Side was way bigger news because he God out there. So him coming to the hood that day, it’s like layers.”
Hearing Kobe Bryant was coming to play in the Drew League, young and upcoming NBA stars like James Harden and Paul George, along with NBA players Nick Young and Trevor Ariza showed up to play with the legend. It was a packed gym. Such was the impact of the player and despite his untimely demise, his impression continues to be stuck in the minds of people who have followed him closely. No matter the media debates and rankings of the NBA players, when it comes to creating an everlasting impact, Kobe is right up there.
Kobe Bryant’s Drew League debut ends in a buzzer-beater
When Kobe Bryant decided to participate in a Drew League game, the fans knew they were in for something special. The gym where the game was played was packed and two NBA players – James Harden and Kobe Bryant were going at each other the entire game. James Harden managed to outscore Bryant 47-44, however, Bryant won the game for his team with a buzzer-beater over Harden. Here is the video of the shot:
The game had the fans chanting ‘Kobe! Kobe’ during the last minutes and the NBA player did not disappoint by hitting a fade-away jumper to end the game. An officer wanted Bryant to leave early but his competitive fire would never allow him to leave when his team is down. He calmly said, “I gotta finish the game” and went on to hit the game-winning shot before getting mobbed by a sea of fans. You could not have scripted a better ending to his Drew League debut.
