Kobe Bryant was an enigmatic personality beyond basketball. While his fellow Lakers teammates spent time on team flights playing cards or talking smack with each other, Kobe chose to remain secluded with his headphones on at a corner. Bryant was never very social when interacting with his teammates beyond basketball. His only focus was to be better at his game every day and pursue his other interests without hindrance from anyone else.
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In the book Three Ring Circus, Jeff Pearlman mentions several instances of Kobe refusing to partake in activities alongside fellow Lakers teammates to focus on his own thing. Pearlman quoted one of Kobe’s teammates saying,
“On flights, as the other Lakers played cards and talked trash, Bryant kept to himself, headphones firmly planted in his ears. I remember he’d [Kobe Bryant] watch the movie The Ten Commandments. That was unusual.”
Kobe would also spend hours during team flights penning rap lyrics that could have given him the potential to dominate the hip-hop industry someday.
Jon Barry, who played for the Lakers during the 1997-98 season, described Kobe Bryant’s early attitude in the league: “He was a loner. He wanted to be great and had no time for anything else. Remember, he was 19. We’re grown men with families. But did it turn people off? Yes.” Many players, who often spent time together on the road dining, would find Kobe’s reclusive and detached attitude extremely cold, making them interact less with the future star.
Nevertheless, many people didn’t realize that Kobe was just 19 then. He needed time to mature and was full of zeal to prove his worth in the league. Over the years, Kobe became a family man after marrying his wife Vanessa and started becoming more open and social with his players. In fact, many young Lakers and other players in the league regard the 5x champion as one of their best mentors in the sport. Perhaps Kobe’s initial cold and reclusive attitude helped him achieve the greatness for which we now regard him highly.
Jerry West and Magic Johnson had instructed Shaq not to haze Kobe Bryant
Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal were an absolute powerhouse of a duo during their time together at the Lakers. Despite winning a three-peat, Shaq and Kobe had a tumultuous relationship due to their clashing egos and differences, giving rise to a nasty feud. However, Lakers legends Jerry West and Magic Johnson had already anticipated such an outcome and had warned Shaq about the same much early in his career.
While Shaq continued hazing Kobe with his antics, he once had to face the brunt of the moment when the FBI knocked on his door one morning. The next day, Jerry West and Magic Johnson approached Shaq and said, “Hey man leave him [Kobe Bryant] alone.” Clearly, the higher-ups at the Lakers wanted Bryant to have his peace and blossom as the next big star for the franchise.
In 2023, former Lakers starting point guard Smush Parker revealed how Kobe Bryant never spoke to him for two years despite being co-workers at the same workplace. In an interview with Pablo Torre, Parker said, “The man never spoke to me…I started with this man, I was his co-worker. Like we shared a cubicle side-by-side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold a conversation…I’m not even going to get how that’s disrespectful as a man.”
However, when Parker inquired about such cold silence from Bryant, the Mamba replied, “You can’t talk to me, you need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me.” While saying so, Kobe was dead serious about what he meant. Nevertheless, Parker’s two-season tenure at the Lakers ended with clashes with coaches and players, including Kobe Bryant. In 2020, the former NBA player revealed that he and Kobe never reconciled their differences after the tragic passing of the Lakers legend that year.
