At some point, every NBA player experiences their welcome-to-the-league moment. Clippers guard Norman Powell’s moment came against his idol, Kobe Bryant. When the opportunity came to prove the Lakers legend wrong, Powell embarrassingly folded under the pressure.
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The 31-year-old joined Brian Windhorst’s The Hoop Collective Podcast, where he went on to reveal a lot of stories about his NBA career. The 6-foot-3 guard was born and raised in San Diego, California. His close affiliation to Los Angeles made him a die-hard Kobe fan growing up.
Therefore, his first matchup against ‘The Black Mamba’ was more important to him than his NBA debut. However, in that first matchup against Bryant, he failed to capitalize on a golden opportunity to impress Kobe. Recalling the events, Powell said,
“I got thrown in there and it was bad. Just because I was caught up watching Kobe. My favorite player, being on the court with him at the same time. I actually got a shot while he was guarding me. Well, he wasn’t really guarding me, he was in the paint.”
“But I got a left corner three, and I just remember him turning about to close out and being like, ‘Hell no!’ I’m like, ‘I’m about to make this’, and I air-balled it.”
Powell experienced the worst possible outcome in his first head-to-head with his idol, especially since that matchup turned out to be the only time he faced him before Kobe retired. That missed three-pointer was the only shot he attempted in that game in just four minutes of action.
Kobe didn’t contest when Powell was about to shoot, indicating that he wasn’t good enough to warrant his defensive attention. And Powell proved him right by airballing the shot.
However, the moment is still irreplaceable for the 2019 NBA champion. Powell’s dream came true of playing against Bryant on the most competitive stage of basketball.
The California native continues to honor Bryant in his own unique way.
Bryant inspired Powell to become an NBA player
Without Kobe, Powell’s life may have went down a completely different route. The NBA legend inspired Powell from a young age to pursue basketball. The Clippers star admitted, “Kobe means everything to me.”
Aside from the five-time champion’s skills on the basketball court, the way Bryant carried himself resonated with Powell. “I embodied him and put it into my approach into the game mentality, all the work I put in.” Furthermore, Powell believed there was one way, in particular, he could honor Bryant. He did so by donning the jersey number 24.
Throughout his nine-year NBA career, Powell’s worn the number 24. He looks to continue to spread Kobe’s legacy in his own way by instilling the Mamba Mentality into the next generation.
