Kobe Bryant was one of the most fierce competitors ever. Not a lot of defenders could say they were able to successfully shut him down on any given night, but one particular player did manage to slow him down a little. Raja Bell, the former Suns guard, detailed how Kobe’s approach to the game made him so hard to guard.
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Kobe and Raja got into many heated matchups throughout their career. Raja joined the ‘Hoops Threads Podcast’ and highlighted the moment that shifted Bryant’s mentality revolving around the game.
“They were both killers. Mamba mentality all the way. 8 was doing it more physically. Quicker than you. Stronger than you. Jump higher than you. He knew what he was doing but he wasn’t a master at his craft yet. 24 became a student. A maniacal obsessive learner of what you did,” Raja said.
Raja faced Kobe during the two different eras of his career. Bell was a member of the Sixers during their 2001 NBA Finals matchup against the Lakers. The core of their rivalry began once Raja became a member of the Suns. Shortly after Kobe changed his number to 24 in the 2006-07 season. Bell stated that the jersey change resulted in a transformed Bryant.
Bell was known to give Kobe a battle any time they faced off. However, there was an exchange between the two in a game, which made it clear to Raja that he was up against a different player.
“Kobe turned around on me in an early game, I forget which season it was and I got that. He went to that fade over the right shoulder and I swiped that thing away. He said to me, ‘I forgot that your hands are there when I get that shot.’ He had watched the film and he knew better than that. That gave you a little bit of insight of who he was as two-four,” Raja said.
Kobe was always a student of the game. Although the casual fan doesn’t widely know Raja, that didn’t stop Bryant from respecting him as a defender and studying all his tendencies to overcome his tenacity.
Kobe and Raja weren’t friendly rivals
Unlike other competitors in the league, there was genuine distaste between Raja and Kobe. Bell even confessed some harsh feelings towards Bryant during his playing career. “I don’t know how Kobe felt, but I genuinely hated the cat at that time. I really didn’t like him,” Raja said.
It isn’t a surprise that there was animosity between the two. Both players played extremely physically against each other. Bell infamously clothes lined Bryant in Game 5 of a first-round series between the Lakers and Suns in 2006.
Bryant never relinquished the fire that brewed when he faced Bell. In a matchup against the Jazz in 2010, Kobe finished with 40 points and let Raja know it. “He can’t guard me. He knows that,” Kobe said.
Despite countless fierce matchups throughout their careers, respect between the two started to build. Raja said,
“Then the coolest part about it for me was, once the time had passed and I saw him the next time, we started to develop a little bit of respect. There was a relationship that started to develop.”
Raja has transitioned to a career in sports media and has never failed to use his platform to defend Bryant’s greatness. However, he makes it known that it wasn’t easy for the Black Mamba when they played.
