Kobe Bryant’s legacy lives on in the hearts of all the players who looked up to him, but Kyrie Irving had a deeper connection with the Black Mamba. Not only was he a huge fan, but soon after joining the league, Irving and Bryant shared a close relationship, with the 5x champion acting as a mentor for the #1 draft pick.
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Irving revealed that Bryant gave him some advice at the beginning of the historic 2015-16 NBA season, where the Cavaliers went on to win the title. On Kai Cenat’s Twitch livestream, Irving, surrounded by the streamer and his friends, revealed that Bryant had tasked him with understanding who he was as a person.
“Kob was like. I remember during the season when we won the championship he told me to do a few things that were crazy bro… 2016 he told me to really start isolating myself a little bit more to get a greater sense of who I am and how you have to approach every day.”
Bryant, who was infamous for being a recluse during practice, told Irving that in order to better understand himself, he’d need to isolate himself from his teammates. Irving revealed that due to his competitive nature, Bryant wouldn’t be forthcoming with advice to rivals, unless a player showed that he was willing to listen and to learn.
“Kob always split the line though. He wasn’t close with anybody. He wasn’t working out with anybody in the summer. He would only give a few people the information that were willing to listen. so you had to initiate yourself as a student like ‘I know nothing. Teach me.’”
Kyrie Irving shares a heartfelt story about Kobe Bryant, talking about how the media and fans hated him back then and how Kobe motivated him to be great ❤️ pic.twitter.com/jbZQUjqNGu
— FearBuck (@FearedBuck) November 29, 2024
Kyrie revealed that the most important lesson he learned from Bryant was to not be over-dependent on basketball. As Irving put it himself, “I use the craft of basketball to get me into rooms, but it’s not defining me at all, and that’s what Kob taught me. Don’t let this sport define you, bro.”
Irving also revealed during the NBA Finals that his relationship with Bryant meant a lot more to him than just a mentor-mentee bond. During a press conference, he revealed,
“I don’t know if anyone here has ever lost a mentor… I miss [Kobe] every single day alongside the world. When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. I had that type of mentorship and relationship with him where I was able to ask him almost anything… He was just easy to approach with those type of questions about what goes on day in and day out, chasing something that’s bigger than yourself.”
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And this wasn’t a one-sided relationship either. The Mamba coached and motivated many players in the league, but he said, “Kyrie’s probably the one I’m closest to.” During an interview with SiriusXM NBA Radio, Bryant was asked about his relationship with Irving, and he remembered an incident from 2016 to explain himself.
The Cavaliers had just won the NBA Finals, off a clutch 3-pointer from Kyrie Irving, and Kobe revealed that Irving called him from the locker room to thank him.
“I remember sitting on the couch at home after Cleveland came back from the 3-1 deficit to beat Golden State and my phone rings, and its face time call, and I’m like I hate face time calls. Don’t Face Time call me unless it’s my family right. But its Kyrie so I pick it up, Kyrie’s in the locker room celebrating on face time like, ‘Dude! It worked! Your advice worked!’”
As Irving said, the world misses Bryant to this day, and it was in large part due to the legacy he left behind.
