When Kobe Bryant looks at you with a “damn, I’m impressed” look, it usually means you’ve done something special. Considering how demanding the Mamba was in his playing days, being his teammate was tough. But there were times when he tried to recruit ballers he thought would help elevate the Lakers’ game. Larry Sanders recently revealed an anecdote about the same.
It was a regular season game in 2013 that Sanders, who was with the Milwaukee Bucks, blocked a shot from Bryant that left the Lakers legend blindsided. Bryant even asked him where he came from, to which Sanders had to admit that he was “sniffing” around him all game.
This was also around the time Bryant was frustrated with Dwight Howard, a Hall of Famer, who he felt was not putting in as much as effort as he would have liked. So, Bryant, impressed, asked Sanders to join the band, seemingly taking a dig at Howard.
Sanders revealed how he was one of the last to leave the Bucks locker room and on his way out of the arena, Bryant spotted him walking. He slowed down, and asked him to get into the car. “He’s like, get on the car young fella… He has Dwight Howard and Pau Gasol on his team right now… Like [he was frustrated]… so p****** off at Dwight.”
“I don’t know if it was a shot at Dwight or whatever but he talked about playing together,” Sanders added. It was a believable story because Bryant was really not happy with Dwight. It wasn’t because the former No. 1 Draft pick was a bad player. He just had a different mindset, something Bryant detested.
Howard was playful, joked around, and often appeared unserious. Traits that didn’t resonate with the Mamba mentality Bryant had embraced over the years and that so many others had come to admire. This difference affected the Lakers throughout their time together as teammates. Naturally, Bryant began looking for other big men to replace Dwight, and that’s when he set his sights on Sanders.
Well, sadly for Sanders, he never got to play with Bryant and went on to be a Buck until 2015, after which only a short Cleveland Cavaliers stint brought to an end his NBA career. Plus, Kobe being Kobe, took revenge on Sanders the very next time he played the Bucks, pump-faking and drawing a foul on the very same play that Sanders got the better of in their last match up.
Sanders remembers this moment fondly, and quite naturally, the highlight of his career would be leaving Staples center in the car that had Bryant in its driver’s seat.
