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‘I Just Came To Say Bye To Some Of You Bums Who Are Getting Traded’: When Kobe Bryant Had ‘Stone-Faced’ Message For Jeremy Lin And His Lakers Teammates In The 2015 NBA Season

Ashish Priyadarshi
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Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant and Jeremy Lin were teammates on the Lakers in the 2014-15 NBA season, and Lin recalls a funny story for the ‘Black Mamba’ during that season.

Kobe was one of the biggest competitors during his time in the NBA, and he never backed down from anyone, not even his own teammates.

His work ethic was one of the craziest in the league, and it was one of the biggest reasons he and Shaq started beefing as Kobe didn’t think that Shaq was keeping up with his practice and fitness the way he wanted. Once, Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy asked Kobe why he was such a stickler and Kobe’s response was simply that he didn’t respect his teammates’ work ethic.

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Kobe Bryant Wasn’t Afraid To Tell Jeremy Lin And The Rest Of The Lakers They Were Going To Get Traded

Kobe Bryant had a similar experience in the 2014-15 NBA season. That year was not great for LA as they finished the year 21-61, almost at the bottom of the Western Conference at 14th place.

The Lakers definitely needed to make some moves and Kobe was clearly aware of the fact. He was injured for a little bit of the season, but he would still drop in to Lakers’ practices to see what was going on.

Even though Kobe was at the later stages of his career, he still had the same confidence that he had in the prime years of his career. According to Lin, before the trade deadline, Kobe once walked in  and said:

“He was just stone-faced, and he was like ‘I just came by to say bye to some of you bums who are going to get traded tomorrow.’ And then he sits down at the table where you control the scoreboard at the practice facility and he said a couple words to the coach, and then he left. And I remember one of my teammates was just like ‘I lost all motivation to practice.’”

Only the ‘Black Mamba’ can make these kind of comments and still hold respect with his team and the rest of the league. This kind of story perfectly exemplifies the kind of player he was.

Also Read: “Shaquille O’Neal really had a 100 overall rating back in NBA 2K2!”: The Lakers legend is the only player in league history with a perfect overall rating in any 2K Game

About the author

Ashish Priyadarshi

Ashish Priyadarshi

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Ashish Priyadarshi is The SportsRush's content manager and editor. Ashish freelanced for 1 year in the NFL division before taking on an editorial role in the company. He then tacked on managing content while adding on a writing role in the NBA division. Ashish has been closely following the NFL and NBA since the 2012 season when the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and Derrick Rose was at the height of his powers. Since then, Ashish has focused on honing his knowledge for both leagues in, even writing crossover pieces. In his free time, Ashish is an avid basketball player, he loves to watch movies and TV shows, immersing himself in the cinematic world. Ashish studies computer science and data science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and would love to mesh his love for sports with his technical skills.

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