In the early 2000s, the Los Angeles Lakers were the team to beat. Led by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, the Lakers were a dominant force that destroyed every team on their path to three consecutive Championships. However, a former Laker, Ruben Patterson, who once regularly guarded Kobe in practice, thought he knew how to stop the Mamba. In 2001, Patterson was playing for the Portland Trailblazers and had acquired the moniker “Kobe stopper”. However, as Rasheed Wallace revealed on the All the Smoke podcast, the Black Mamba took this personally and things didn’t end well for Patterson.
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Kobe himself has admitted that the “Kobe stopper” nickname didn’t sit well with him. He believed that it was a business decision on Patterson’s part, as he looked to secure a new contract after leaving LA. Bryant even claimed that he had offered to declare that Patterson plays the best defense on him to get the latter a good deal. However, Rube, as he is often referred to, chose not to heed his advice. Safe to say, he went on to regret his decision.
Rasheed Wallace recalls how Kobe Bryant put an end to the “Kobe Stopper” Ruben Patterson
The Portland Trailblazers were quite a team back in the 2000s. But they couldn’t stand in comparison to the powerhouse that was the Los Angeles Lakers. So, when the Blazers got the self-proclaimed “Kobe stopper” Ruben Patterson, they were ecstatic. In particular, Rasheed Wallace and Bonzi Wells started hyping Patterson up.
This was the case before one fateful game. Sheed and Bonzi hyped up Patterson as much as they could before facing the Lakers. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well in the end. As Wallace recalled, the Black Mamba was unstoppable after hearing the ‘Kobe Stopper’ chants from the sidelines. At one point in the game, he drove down the court scoring with ease and even got the “and-one” call on Ruben.
However, the real kicker came when Kobe looked directly at Wallace and Wells and rhetorically asked them if Patterson really was the “Kobe stopper”, before draining his foul shot. During an appearance on the All the Smoke podcast, Rasheed Wallace told Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson:
“Rube[Patterson], you know, we was hyping it up, because of course, back then you got to think of psychological warfare. So, all we did was let the media hear us. And, who hyping it up? Me and Bonzi, “Kobe stopper! Kobe stopper!”. So during the game, Kobe came down, he gave him a bucket. It was a three or it was a dunk or something. So we on the line and then we look and he’s like, “Kobe stopper huh?”. And just shot his foul shot and went down the court.”
It is the perfect example of a Kobe story. An extremely competitive player, Bryant never took being disrespected lightly. Least of all from a player, who while defensively good, stood no chance of stopping him.
Kobe hit two clutch shots over Patterson ending the Trailblazers’ post-season run
The “Kobe stopper” moniker didn’t really suit Ruben Patterson. After all, more often than not, it seemed as though Kobe Bryant only scored against him. Every time they clashed, Kobe found a way to get one over Patterson. And in 2004, things were no different.
With the game on the line, Kobe hit a last-minute buzzer-beater over Patterson to send the game to OT. Then, in double OT, he hit another ridiculous buzzer-beater to end Portland’s post-season chances.
Kobe truly was an incredible player. And, if Ruben Patterson knew what he was getting himself into, he probably wouldn’t have dared call himself the “Kobe stopper”.
