“I loved that Dwyane Wade broke my nose”: How ‘masked’ Kobe Bryant used an injury get back at the Miami Heat legend during a Lakers game

Kobe Bryant once called Dwyane Wade and told him that he loved him getting his nose broken as it fueled a fire within himself to try harder. 

Stories about Kobe Bryant and his competitive vigor seem to never run out and as NBA fans get further removed from the time that he actually stepped foot on the court, they start to feel like urban legends. Kobe was known to do everything from working out at 4am to studying sharks hunting seals in order to learn how to guard Allen Iverson. 

His moniker, the ‘Black Mamba’ soon gave birth to the ‘Mamba Mentality’; a state of mind that’s similar to having the hot hand but on both ends of the court. Kobe Bryant preached the ‘Mamba Mentality’ all throughout the second half of his career but practiced it for all 20 seasons.

Also read: “Kobe Bryant studied me by watching sharks hunt seals”: Allen Iverson revealed that the Lakers legend tore up a hotel room in search of answers to guard the Sixers superstar

Dwyane Wade was one of the few competitors that Bean faced that could actually stand toe to toe against him. The two had a ton of respect for one another and this eventually delved into a friendship. 

Kobe Bryant had his nose broken by Dwyane Wade and later told him that he ‘loved it’. 

The All-Star Game is usually used as a platform to showcases some of the greatest offensive talents in the world. Little to no defense is played her but during the 2012 ASG, Dwyane Wade played some hard-nosed defense (no pun intended) on Kobe Bryant, which resulted in Wade elbowing him in the nose. This led to Bryant suffering from a broken nose. 

Following the ASG, the Los Angeles Lakers faced off against the Miami Heat on March 4th. It was here that the 5x champ dropped a light 33 points while Dwyane Wade was his primary defender. He did so on 61% shooting from the field with mainly jumpers and mid-range shots. 

While talking about this moment, Wade said that he called Kobe to apologize for the broken nose incident. The Lakers superstar would go on to tell D-Wade, “Bro, I love it. I’ll see you on a couple of days.”

Also read: “I hated being compared to Larry Bird”: Magic Johnson admits that NBA fans claiming the Celtics legend was better than him irked him

Of course, the aforementioned 33 points took place following the end of this call. It’s safe to say that even in his 16th season in the league, Kobe Bryant was still that fierce competitor he came into the league as