Kobe Bryant was one of the hardest working players in league history. In order to become the best version of himself, Bryant would completely drain himself at the gym during practice. The Black Mamba’s competitive spirit was what motivated him to practice at odd hours. Obsessed with winning, the 6-feet-6 Shooting Guard would sometimes get his teammates riled up in practice. During Kobe’s final years in the league, he would be extremely tough on the younger members of the Los Angeles Lakers squad. Frustrated with his teammates at one point, Bryant would even compare the team to the toilet paper brand ‘Charmin’.
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Kobe was often regarded as the heir of Michael Jordan. Apart from possessing a similar skillset to Jordan, the Lakers star inherited a few of his intangible attributes as well. The tendency to push their teammates to the limits was one of the similarities. However, according to their trainer Tim Grover, knowing when to stop was a key difference between the two.
While His Airness had quite a few harsh interactions with his teammates, “Bean” was not far away from his mentor.
Kobe Bryant believed his teammates were making him worse
In the midst of a horrific 2014-2015 season, Bryant had an outburst during one of the California side’s practice sessions. Annoyed at the team’s performance, the Combo Guard would go on to talk trash to each and every one of his teammates.
With Nick Young chirping back at the veteran, Bryant couldn’t prevent himself from getting into a verbal altercation with him. The expletive-heavy trash talk would result in Kobe comparing the team to Charmin.
Have, a look at the clip of the incident posted by Ball_Motivation.
Julius Randle recently made an appearance on Podcast P with Paul George. In the episode, the former Lakers Forward disclosed the behind-the-scenes story of the scrimmage. Randle recollected that the 2008 Most Valuable Player kept calling his teammates trash and even complained to the front office about the other players making him “worse”. Narrating the story from his rookie season, Randle further revealed on Paul George’s podcast:
“I was a rookie. So my leg was broke. I’m in the training room, I’m getting my rehab and stuff. And all I hear is ‘soft as Charmin. Y’all mother**kers trash’. Kobe got a deep a** voice, so you hear it. He just going back and forth and I hear Nick[Young], ‘You can’t guard me’.”
“Mitch Kupchak was our GM at the time and Kobe, leaving the court, he’s like ‘I’m supposed to get better with this sh*t?’ And then he walk in the locker room, he like ‘Ju, what the f**k is this, Ju? I’m supposed to practice? These motherf**kers are making me worse’. And he just walked out bro.”
Unfortunately, the rant didn’t seem to have any effect on the team’s performance. Grabbing merely 21 wins, the Purple & Gold concluded the campaign with the second-worst record in the Western Conference.
Randle revealed how Bryant hilariously asked for the ball in his last game
After two decades, Kobe decided to hang up his boots after the conclusion of the 2015-2016 season. As fitting as it would be, the Mamba would finish his final game with a 60-point explosion.
While talking about the iconic outing against the Utah Jazz, Randle explained how the two-time scoring champ would demand the ball. Receiving a stern warning, the Knicks star recollected the conversation with Kobe during an appearance on JJ Redick’s The Old Man & The Three podcast.
“It was actually a funny part of that game because he had took the ball out and he had inbounded to me, and I was like: ‘Yo, I’m about to come out. I’m shootin’ this time’ or whatever. And he was like: ‘Yo, MF. If you want everybody in this arena to boo you, go ahead. But you better throw me the damn ball.’”
Even though it took the Lakers legend 50 attempts to reach the 60-point mark, we’re glad that his teammates kept feeding him the ball.
