Former Los Angeles Lakers star and Kobe Bryant‘s former teammate, Ron Artest, now known as Metta World Peace or Metta Sandiford-Artest, recently showed up on Fanduel‘s Run It Back podcast to talk about his career and the NBA in general. Among a range of other Kobe-related questions, he was also asked about the battles he had with the Mamba throughout his career. The 44-year-old claimed that he remembers every battle that he had with the Lakers icon, even revealing that Kobe was the reason he would never go out partying the night before a Lakers game.
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Artest talked about some of the battles he had with Bryant over the years. Claiming that the Lakers legend came out as the winner around 70% of the time, he recalled their very first battle which he happened to win. The defender was a Chicago Bull at the time and had locked down Kobe in the game, an overtime block against the latter being the standout highlight of the night.
MWP claimed that it was Bryant’s mental toughness, rather than his quickness or any other skill set, that set him apart. “Playing against Kobe was crazy because he wasn’t lightning quick. But he was just so mentally tough, so he would wear on you mentally,” he said.
The kind of effort it took to try and keep up with Bryant meant that Artest made it a rule to not go out to party the night before a game against the Lakers. “I think maybe once or twice I went out the night before, but for the most part, I was never going out the night before playing against Kobe. I would sleep and get my rest, because, if not, you are talking about a 50-piece,” he added.
From Metta World Peace’s perspective, the rule made perfect sense. At the same time, it would sometimes lead to missed opportunities, if he chose to not go out and party and then saw that Bryant was missing the game due to injury or any other reason.
However, Sandiford-Artest’s claim is in line with many other defenders in the NBA, who have claimed that Kobe’s mental tenacity was something that took a toll on them. The Mamba wasn’t always the most flashy or the most dominant on the court. But he was willing to put in the most effort to separate himself from others. Another good NBA defender Iman Shumpert has revealed that Kobe would plan out all the moves on the court in his head repeatedly to gain an advantage against others.
Metta World Peace once trash-talked Kobe Bryant
MWP played for a number of teams in his career. Following stints with the Kings and the Pacers, he found himself with the Rockets.
During one matchup against the Lakers, he tried some good, old-fashioned trash-talk to get into Kobe’s head. He told Kobe that he was not ready for him, which obviously led to a response.
Kobe burst into mock laughter. He then wanted to know whether Artest had become a standup comedian as well, leading to a range of plays that absolutely destroyed MWP. Artest would then join the Lakers himself, in 2009, to win the 2010 Championship with Kobe.
