Kyle Kuzma was once considered to be the next-gen star of the Los Angeles Lakers after Kobe Bryant retired. He was the mark of a new dawn on the West Coast. Kuzma was drafted the year after Kobe finally retired from basketball. Just like every basketball kid of his time, Kuz has also been a huge fan of the legend. Unfortunately, he couldn’t share the court with Bryant. However, the NBA player recently shared a clip of Bean dominating Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets in a 2008 postseason game.
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On a different occasion, Kuzma once narrated the story of how Kobe suddenly messaged him for a workout with the legend. The Washington Wizards player said that, in August, the Lakers legend suddenly hit him up and asked for a meet-up at 8 AM the next day. Bryant made him do 25 reps of a drill and then 12-13. By the time they were done, Kuz said he was dead. However, the next day, Rob Pelinka told the former Laker that Bryant had said that they had a great workout and the young man was in great shape.
Kyle Kuzma shares a video of Kobe Bryant edging out Carmelo Anthony and his Nuggets in the 2008 playoffs
In 2008, Paul Gasol and Bryant were leading the Lakers’ offense, and it looked like Bryant had finally gotten his partner in crime. They faced Carmelo Anthony and Allen Iverson in the First Round of the playoffs. The Lakers were up 3-0 in the series at the time and the Mamba had put up brilliant numbers on the board. He had scored 36, 49, and 22 points in Games 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The story turned out to be pretty much the same affair as Bryant swept Melo’s Nuggets in Game 4.
Three-pointers, bank shots, turnaround jumpers, and fadeaways-the Mamba hit the Nuggets with every move on the book and took them out of the game. He ended up a scoring game-high 31 points and won the first round against a stacked-up Denver side. Remembering Kobe, Kuzma captioned the clip, “The illest” and shared the video on his Instagram story. Truly, what Kobe did to the Nuggets was ill.
Kuzma changes his GOAT pick, picks Kobe over LeBron James after his trade to Washington
During his stint with the Lakers, there were times when it seemed like Kuzma wasn’t on the best of terms with his teammate LeBron James. His trainer had said Bron was “dodging smoke” and perhaps was not in the gym enough. Once a star starter, the 20-year-old Wizards player was soon downgraded to the second lineup, and his minutes were decreased. Now, once he is in Washington, it seems like Kuzma is reconsidering his GOAT pick.
In a recent post, Sports Center said that Bryant had more 40, 50, and 60-point games than LeBron and other players combined in all three categories. Kuzma had reacted to the Tweet and replied, “Greatest ever no question.” Now it might seem like a normal response, but going back to 2018, it adds a different layer to the whole thing. Kuzma had picked LeBron over Kobe back then and called him the greatest of this generation.
