Kobe Bryant spent his entire two-decade NBA career with the Los Angeles Lakers, sharing the locker room with a revolving cast of teammates. Over the years, he saw many come and go, but always ran things his own way behind the scenes. And when it came to welcoming newcomers to the Lakers, Bryant had a very unique approach.
Stories of Bryant’s desire to win and be the best are legendary in the NBA community. But what very few fail to realize is that his own teammates were not safe from his innate need to stand atop the mountain alone. Current Los Angeles Clippers Head Coach and Bryant’s former teammate, Tyronn Lue, spoke about this recently.
Lue won two Championships with Bryant and the Lakers (2000 and 2001). In a podcast with Shannon Sharpe, he revealed how Bryant wanted to outshine everyone else every single day in practice and in the game. Then came the unfortunate — those who wanted to be like him could call themselves fortunate — newbies in the Lakers roster.
“Every time we got a new player, like Glen Rice, Glen Rice is a bad dude, Kobe wanted to play one-on-one,” Lue stated. “To show him, this is my team. We got J.R. Ryder, same thing. J.R. Ryder got there, he wanted to play one-on-one, show him this is my team.”
Ty Lue says whenever the Lakers got a new player Kobe Bryant played them 1-on-1 to show them it’s his team
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That was a fun revelation, though not all that surprising. After all, Bryant was the same man who ran through his Lakers teammate and close friend Pau Gasol’s chest like a truck in the Olympics, just to make a statement. He wants to win, at all costs. And that’s what made him so successful, and Mamba Mentality a mantra that so many around the world adopted.
“That’s just who he was, compete for every possession, every sprint, every dribble, he wanted to be the best and that’s no bulls***, like every single day, he was the same person, you saw him practice every single day.”
Lue on how difficult it was to get the better of Bryant
Bryant wasn’t just ‘aura-farming’ in the practice courts. His mindset reflected during games, and that’s what made him one of the greatest to ever play in the NBA. Lue, for instance, knows just how difficult it is to get the better of the five-time Champion.
When Bryant shared the locker room with Lue, he was just in his early 20s, but was mature beyond his years. “You know just the way that he carried himself, the way that he worked and the funny story was you know about his work ethic,” he said to Players Tribune.
Lue went on to reveal that he would never beat Bryant, and that’s something, because he considered himself a great one-on-one player in his own right. “Every day my cousin was like, ‘Man, why you can’t beat him?’ He’d beat me every damn time. I was a great 1-on-1 player like I’m like man I don’t know why I can’t beat this dude. A year or two went by and Kobe became Kobe.”
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Kobe did become Kobe. He became a legend, not just in basketball but in sports. Mindset and ability wise, very few matched him. He retired in 2016, with five championships and an unmatchable legacy.
