Kobe Bryant’s demeanor often made him unapproachable for his teammates. Former LA Lakers players, including the likes of Smush Parker, have highlighted the Mamba’s coldness toward role players. Darius Johnson-Odom, who played just four games for the Lakers during the 2012-13 season, also witnessed the cold side of Kobe during practice sessions.
Advertisement
During an appearance on Jefe Island, Johnson-Odom revealed that the Lakers legend shut down his repeated requests for a 1v1 match-up.
Johnson-Odom was also a tireless worker like Bryant. But despite arriving early in the practice facility, he used to find Kobe drenched in sweat already. Since no other player showed up early in the morning, he would urge the 18x All-Star to play one-on-one basketball against him. But Kobe would never agree.
Bryant always turned down the proposal probably because he thought the then 23-year-old wasn’t good enough to take him on. This was surprising for the latter because Johnson-Odom was assigned as Bryant’s primary defender in practice sessions.
However, the former Lakers superstar had rather stringent parameters under which he entertained a 1v1 game. Johnson-Odom recalled,
“Coming in, trying to play one-on-one, he’s like, ‘You ain’t ready’. He just waived me off. I tried to play him one-on-one every morning I saw him because I had to be like first one to the gym.”
“By the time, I get there, he already in dead sweat. Let me see if I can get a one-on-one with him but he ain’t gonna… Never, never let me get one,” the 34-year-old added.
Although it was routine for Bryant to give a cold shoulder to young athletes, he did give some invaluable advice to Johnson-Odom. After the 6’2” guard got into a mild altercation with Center Jordan Hill once, Bryant asked him to control his emotions so that he can focus on the game.
He told him that succumbing to emotions for petty reasons would only derail his professional career.
“Jordan Hill came at me on something like being physical, but it was just basketball. I think I was yelling at him or something. Kobe was like, ‘Hey look man, don’t say nothing to people like that, just hoop. If you let your emotions run over, then you ain’t gonna be nothing during practice or in games,’” the former NBA star added.
The LA Lakers waived Darius Johnson-Odom in the middle of the 2012-13 season. During the next season, he would go on to play just three games for the Philadelphia 76ers. But that was it for his NBA journey. He scored 0 points in the 7 NBA games he played, which is a record considering no other NBA player ever went scoreless for such a long stretch.
It was clear that he didn’t belong to the NBA scene. Therefore, Johnson-Odom took his talents to Europe. He has signed numerous annual contracts with basketball leagues in Italy, Turkey, France, Greece, and Romania, making him a prototypical journeyman. The guard currently plays for the Orléans Loiret in France’s LNB Pro B.
