Zach Zarba has been a ref in the NBA for 21 seasons and has done a fine job during that time. But there was one time when he didn’t do such a fine job, and legend Kobe Bryant cursed him out over it. As he recalled the story on a recent podcast, the long-time official painted a picture of just how intense The Black Mamba was.
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The scene was 2003, Zarba’s rookie year as a ref. He was assigned to officiate the Lakers game, meaning he was going to get to see prime Bryant in action. Yet, he quickly learned not to get a call wrong when it went against 24.
Now, deadpan can be a form of Kobe’s speech when he’s in the zone. For example, there was once a time when Chris Rock was seemingly telling him jokes while on the bench amidst a game, but Bryant stonewalled the comedian. It was quite a funny sight to see during his career.
However, Zarba once got a taste firsthand of that deadpan attitude from Kobe.
“Kobe was brash, man,” Zarba said via Hoops Cat Media on Instagram. “He’s complaining about he got fouled or something like that. So, I’m listening, and it’s customary in any professional league where they have video or anything, they’ll say, ‘Zach, go back and look at it, tell me at halftime if it was a foul.’”
He then went back at halftime to check and see if Bryant got fouled. Sure enough, he got hit on the elbow. But Zarba knew it wasn’t going to be a big deal. He’d done it a million times before. You go over to the player after halftime, apologize, then everyone shakes hands and moves on.
Kobe, though, didn’t care to be nice to the ref after he apologized.
“He looked at me stone cold and said, ‘Get your sh*t together.’ And I remember going, damn. He spent how many hours perfecting his craft or whatever? Like, you’ve gotta come to go to work. I did have to get my sh*t together.”
The experience was humbling enough for the ref to remember it all of these years later. As a rookie at the time, he must have been rattled by a legend like Kobe telling him to get it together. But it speaks to Bryant’s competitiveness, as he didn’t want anyone hampering his game that he worked so meticulously on.
Bryant’s work ethic
Kobe was a machine of an athlete in his prime who pushed himself to the limit. He would wake up and work out at 3 in the morning and train for two hours. But he didn’t stop there.
Bryant would also go home and eat breakfast. Then he went back out for another two hours to train. Then would rest and go train again for another two hours. And rinse and repeat until it’s too late to train.
All in all, Kobe would end up getting more work in than his competitors by simply waking up earlier. That’s how seriously he took his craft. When Zarba says he put many hours into perfecting his game, he really meant thousands.
