JJ Redick recently made a guest appearance on Andrew Schulz’s Flagrant podcast. During the 130-minute conversation, the panel spoke about numerous topics. Among many others, Redick was asked to name the greatest players he’s ever matched up against. Apart from adding Stephen Curry to this list, the ESPN analyst also spoke about his interactions with Kobe Bryant from the Team USA Basketball camp.
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Andrew Schulz put JJ Redick on the spot by asking the sharpshooter to name the “greatest player” the latter ever played against. Redick immediately named Kobe Bryant as the greatest player he had to guard. Further, even though he didn’t have to guard LeBron James, Stephen Curry, and Kevin Durant at any point in his career, Redick gave the three current faces of the league a nod to the esteemed list.
“He’s (Kobe Bryant) the greatest player I ever guarded. I didn’t have to guard LeBron, I didn’t necessarily have to guard Steph. But those three guys, and I will put KD in there too. Those are the four,” Redick answered.
Soon after, the Duke University alum narrated two Kobe Bryant stories from the Team USA Basketball camp in 2006. First, JJ spoke about Bryant being a “psycho worker”. He stated how coach Johnny Dawkins was exhausted because the Black Mamba forced him to a 6 AM workout.
“Coach Dawkins comes, he looks haggard like he looks exhausted. I’m like ‘JD what the fuck is going on?’ He’s like ‘Kobe, man, he had me in here at 6 AM. He was in here for three hours. He was working on the counter to the counter to the counter and he had to make 10 shots in a row’. All those stories about Kobe being a psycho worker, they’re all true,” Redick said.
Later, Redick also revealed how the Los Angeles Lakers superstar offered to shoot together. 15 minutes into their session, Redick noticed that the 6ft 6” guard was closely observing his shooting, trying to learn.
“End of first practice comes and Kobe is like ‘hey, do you want to shoot?’ and I’m like ‘yeah, yeah, I’ll shoot and at the time I’m thinking he wants to shoot with me because he’s being a good guy. And then we shoot, like 15 minutes into it, I realize he’s watching how I shoot. Watching how I catch the ball, watching how my footwork. He’s trying to pick something up. He was always trying to learn,” Redick said.
Not many established superstars in the league would offer to practice with a player still in college. Further, trying to learn new things from a youngster not even in the league seems quite bizarre. However, that was the way Bryant functioned. He didn’t miss out on any opportunity to improve.
Jay Williams also revealed a story depicting how hard a worker Kobe Bryant was
Back in 2021, Jay Williams also narrated a story, proving that Kobe Bryant was amongst the hardest workers in the league.
During a clash against the Kobe Bryant & Shaquille O’Neal-led Los Angeles Lakers, Williams decided to come in four hours before the game to get 400 shots up. After working for almost an hour and a half, the then-Chicago Bulls guard noticed that Bryant was still practicing. And 25 minutes later, Bean finished with his session.
After Kobe went on to record 40 points in the game, the Lakers leader revealed that seeing Williams in the gym, inspired him to work harder.
“So, the game was at 7… I’m going to get there at 3. I want to make sure I make 400 made shots before I go back into the room and sit in the sauna… I worked out for a good hour, hour and half,” Williams said. “When I came off after I was done I sat down and of course I still hear the ball bouncing.”
“Hey Kobe, why were you in the gym for so long?” he asked. Bryant replied, “Because I saw you come in. I wanted you to know it doesn’t matter how hard you work. I’m willing to work harder than you. You inspire me to be better.”
Clearly, Bryant always wanted to be better than his opponents whether it was during the course of the game or just practice. Stories like this have inspired multiple players in the league and fans around the world to emulate the same work ethic that Bryant had.
