The 2012 Team USA was led by an ascending LeBron James who had just come off his first NBA championship with the Miami Heat. Another influential member was a vengeful Kobe Bryant who had a disappointing season after being knocked out in the semi-finals of the playoffs to a Kevin Durant and Russell Westbook-led OKC. An old video featuring Westbrook and Kobe going at each other during practice did the rounds on Twitter recently. It is a testament to the intensity the players brought to the court irrespective of whether it’s a game or practice.
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The competition was unlike any other considering the team featured future and current Hall-of-Famers such as Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, Russell Westbrook, Anthony Davis, and Andre Iguodala among others.
Kobe Bryant goes at Russell Westbrook during practice
It’s no surprise Kobe went for the jugular the moment he had the chance to guard Westbrook in the resurfaced video. Kobe was a season removed from winning a championship and was desperate to get back to the Finals and win one more, which would have put him close to his idol, Michael Jordan, with 6 rings. OKC and Westbrook had different plans though and comfortably beat the Lakers.
Being vocal and leading the team, LeBron called out an ISO play. He egged Kobe to lock Russ down and drive him down the sidelines where he would either have a tough angle to shoot or slam into another body. Russ, however, took a dribble and calmly stepped back to knock down a comfortable 3.
He then proceeded to stare Kobe down and chirped saying:
“You can’t do anything about that one!”
To this, a fiery Kobe replied:
“Come here and get it!”
This is one of the many incidents that made the 2012 team that great, it featured not only the best stars but also the ultimate competitor making not only games fun but also practices.
LEAKED Audio Of Russell Westbrook Trash Talking Kobe Bryant In Team USA Practice👀:
Westbrook: “You can’t do nothing about that one”
Kobe: “Come here and get it”, while also staring him down pic.twitter.com/9QrLAteoWt
— LegendZ (@legendz_nba) September 2, 2023
Kobe plays mind games on Westbrook
Kobe was an assassin on the court and did everything he could off of it to get some real estate in the heads of his opponents. Kobe’s mind games and challenges are a thing of legends and we have seen multiple players and experts talk about it. However, it still surprises fans to hear tales of how cerebral he actually was.
During the 2012 Team USA Olympics run, young stars such as Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant had the chance to be mentored by Kobe Bryant and learn from the Mamba’s relentless pursuit of excellence. However, this was prime Kobe, who was geared to constantly think about winning and would do anything possible to get there whether it was studying Sharks or playing mind games with other stars.
Kobe had just come off a second-round loss to Westbrook and OKC and wanted to sow the seeds of dissent among the teammates so the Lakers had a better chance in the West. He spent a lot of time telling Westbrook that he should stop deferring to Kevin Durant and that he should be winning scoring titles instead. Sounds a lot like a Kobe thing to do, break them mentally before you break them physically.
