From a public opinion standpoint, there may not be an NBA player in history more fascinating than Kobe Bryant. The Lakers legend is known today as one of the best to ever lace them up, and due largely to the good works and girl dad persona he cultivated later in his life, he’s also seen as a role model by millions.
Advertisement
Back during his playing days, that wasn’t necessarily the case. Kobe’s ability was never really in question, but to say he was not nearly as well-liked as he is now would be a massive understatement. Even taking some questionable off-the-court stuff out of the equation, Kobe was seen as, well, a prick, much in the way his idol Michael Jordan was.
Kobe famously feuded with Shaquille O’Neal, a beef that ended up breaking a dynasty apart. He was often seen as selfish, such as when he refused to shoot in the second half one time to prove a point to Phil Jackson. Still, it’s difficult to argue with where it got him, as he ended his career with five rings.
Kobe famously gave himself the Black Mamba nickname, which turned out to be fitting in a number of ways. Not only is it one of the deadliest creatures in the world, the mamba doesn’t have many friends in the animal kingdom.
That’s how Kobe was for much of his career, and on the most recent episode of Above the Rim with Dwight Howard, Jeremy Lin, who spent one year as Kobe’s teammate, shared a story that’s really not that surprising.
Lin described how Kobe and head coach Byron Scott were giving him conflicting messages near the end of a game in the 2014-15 season. One said to foul, the other said not to foul, and Lin was caught in the middle. “It ended up being something where he had given me really bad body language, so I texted him,” Lin said.
For further context, Lin said, “Me and him, when we would lose, we’d be up at like 3, 4 in the morning not able to sleep, just very competitive, so I texted him like, ‘Hey man, I really don’t appreciate the body language,’ and he came back with a sharp response, and I came back at him.”
Lin acknowledged that Kobe was a much better player than he was, and he just wanted to learn anything he could from him. He was just hoping that Kobe would do it in a more constructive, less confrontational way. That sort of happened, until it didn’t.
“He was like, ‘Alright, I got you,'” Lin said. “And then he sent over a text with some advice, he’s like, ‘Let’s start with this.’ I was like, ‘I got you, I’mma be focused on that, I’ll be working on this, exactly what you’re saying, I’m just trying to get better, I’m trying to help this team more.” Sounds reasonable, right?
Wrong. “We didn’t speak for the next five months,” Lin revealed. “He’s not used to people challenging him, and I wasn’t challenging him like, ‘I’m better than you, I’m smarter than you,’ I was only challenging him like, ‘Hey, can you teach me in a way that’s a little bit more effective for me to process it, versus not talking down to me.'”
Whatever Kobe did, it didn’t work, because the Lakers went just 21-61 that year. Kobe tore his rotator cuff in January and only ended up playing in 35 games. The next year was his final year in the league, and the Lakers were even worse, winning only 17 games, which made it the worst season in franchise history.
Lin’s story feels like an important one. Too often, sports fans want to make someone a hero or a villain, when in reality, there are shades of gray to everyone. Kobe was great, but he was also demanding, and sometimes that went over the line. It’s all part of the totality of one of the most interesting players in NBA history.
