Being born to Jelly Bean Bryant allowed Kobe Bryant an early life glimpse into how the professional world of basketball. He wasn’t just privy to his father’s experience but also to the opportunity of meeting and talking to actual NBA players. One such player was Brian Shaw, who revealed the story of his bond with Kobe on the Byron Scott Podcast.
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After just a season with the Celtics, Shaw left for Italy to play for Il Messaggero Roma in 1889. That is where he first met Kobe, who was only 10 or 11 at the time. Shaw made his way back to the NBA after the Celtics filed a lawsuit against him and won.
Just a few years later, Shaw met Bryant again. This time around, Kobe was as tall as the 6ft 6″ guard and only in his 11th grade. Shaw, surprised by his growth spurt, confessed to remembering him. The confident Bryant then confided in Shaw that he was planning to skip his senior year of high school for the NBA.
At first, Shaw did not take his future teammate seriously. But once the 1996 draft happened and the Lakers drafted arguably their greatest player ever, Shaw began to pay attention. The two won three championships together and forged a friendship.
Later, in 2007, Bryant was running his training camp in Loyola. Shaw, who noted the success Michael Jordan found by running his training camp at the University of California in Santa Barbara, advised Kobe, “you got about 150, 200 kids here at Loyola. You can get 750 at Santa Barbara with all the courts. I said, Jordan is getting $750 per session, per kid, and getting 750 kids. You do the math on that.”
Shaw was fond of fishing and was interested in catching sharks and stingrays. He invited his former teammate for a morning session of fishing, but Bryant never showed up.
When Shaw sent him pictures of his catch later in the day, Kobe had a reaction true to his mentality, “He said, what you doing? And I said, I just took a picture with him. And I just threw him back in the water and let him go.”
Kobe couldn’t comprehend why Shaw would do that and ended up asking, “Why did you do that?” Shaw responded, “I said, what was I supposed to do? He’s like, you’re supposed to kill him. I said, I’m supposed to kill him. I said, why? He said, they got caught. That’s what they get for getting caught, right? And I mean, in a nutshell, that’s his mentality.”
Typical Kobe Bryant. Competitive to the point he could not believe someone would catch a fish and just let them go.
