A 37 year old Charles Barkley once put Kobe Bryant on a poster when the Rockets played the Lakers in the 1999 NBA Playoffs.
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The Los Angeles Lakers and the Houston Rockets met one another in the 1999 NBA Playoffs, a series that saw the former get booted from the postseason one last time before dominating the league for 3 years straight. Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal would go on to fall in 4 games to Charles Barkley and company in merely the first round.
Shaq actually confirmed that he hilariously ripped 5 urinals off the wall out of pure anger following the loss to the Rockets that featured 3 superstars that were out of their prime. Charles Barkley especially, was most definitely not the same offensive talent he was a couple years prior.
Though he still lived up to his moniker of ‘The Round Mound of Rebound’ by snagging 13.8 boards a game in the 1999 Playoffs, he was clearly not the 1993 MVP version of himself to say the least.
Kobe Bryant gets dunked on by Charles Barkley in 1999.
The 1999 Playoffs saw Kobe Bryant really come into his own as a player who could, potentially, carry the Lakers offense along with Shaquille O’Neal. He averaged nearly 20 points per game in those 4 bouts against Charles Barkley and the Rockets and was also becoming a decent perimeter defender in the process.
His defense in the interior however, wasn’t enough to stop Charles Barkley who at 37 years of age, could still get up and dunk on somebody. This is exactly what happened to the 5x champ as he, unfortunately was caught on the wrong end of a screen and roll that saw Chuck put the ball through the hoop with a two-hand slam.
No one can really hold this against Kobe though as, not only was he merely 20 years old at the time, but simply was not built to challenge someone who was built the way Barkley was.
