Kobe Bryant was one of those players who intimidated his opponents just by the fierce look he had on his face. With his stint in the league, Bryant left a legacy that is still untouched. He is considered one of the most hard-working players in the league. The five-time NBA champion was not just a great offensive force but also a great intelligent trash-talker. Imam Shumpert, shared an incident of Mamba, while he was on the All The Smoke podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson. The $30,000,000 star revealed that after guarding the former Lakers star for three quarters he felt confident that he was doing everything right until the real Mamba turned up.
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Kobe and his trash-talking are nothing new to the fans. Another star, Gilbert Arenas once revealed about Bryant’s trash-talking in the game. However, he also said that Bean was a different trash-talker than the rest of the league. Speaking on Bryant trash talking Arenas said that the Laker star was an intelligent trash talker. “A lot. It was trash…but it was intelligent trash. It was intelligent trash. He always had you second-guessing what you were doing!” Bryant was a student of the game and he wanted to be best at every nuances.
Iman Shumpert recalls the time Kobe Bryant showed him the real Mamba
Speaking on the podcast, Imam spoke about how Kobe Bryant give him a taste of the Mamba mentality. Playing with the New York Knicks, Iman was facing the Lakers and Kobe. Imam said that he had told his brother that he could guard Kobe and perhaps was successful in three-fourths of the game. However, Bryant, showed why he was the most difficult offensive force in the game in his years. This is what Shurmpert said;
“Oh I told my brother I could guard Kobe, I could guard Mike (Micheal Jordan), I got this. We walked into the third quarter and I am walking. With Kobe right there I was fixing my sock. Kobe came up patted my legs and said ‘you had a great game’…. I was confused. After that, he stopped talking to me.l, like I didn’t exist.”
Imam accepted that he was scared after Kobe’s words. As there were more than 12 minuted left in the game, the Knicks star was confused what was going to happen next or what Kobe meant.
Although the Knicks won the game against the Lakers, Shumpert, learned that Kobe was built differently. Bryant scored a team-high 34 points for the Lakers in the match.
Iman Shumpert talks about what makes LeBron James so great
Imam also talked about his former teammate LeBron James and the differences between him and Carmelo Anthony. Speaking about Melo, Shurmpert said that Carmelo has a knack for picking up the weaknesses of his opponents very fast and using them later.
However, when it comes to Bron, his former Cavs teammate said that James perhaps takes the heart of the opponents and makes him unplayable. “What I learned so quick playing with Bron, is actually like the opposite of Melo. With Melo, Melo will find your weakness immediately…and he’ll keep it in his pocket to use it when he need to use it…LeBron will make it till you’re not allowed to play…you can’t even be on the floor right now. We gonna expose it now, can’t keep it in pocket…”
During his stint with the Cavs, the former Knicks player won a championship with Bron in 2016. He was part of one of the greatest, if not the greatest NBA Finals of all time. He has seen the Lakers star in his weakest and his strongest time. Words coming from him are an actual testament to the greatness of the four-time NBA champion because he has seen what is mere news in the league.
