Iman Shumpert was a great 1 v 1 defender – but he was no match for Kobe Bryant.
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Iman Shumpert spent a major portion of his career split between the Knicks and the Cavaliers that included winning a title with LeBron James in 2016. All of this experience gave him the opportunity to guard some of the best players that have played in the past decade. One of them was Kobe Bryant, who he went up against multiple times in his career.
One of the times he played the Black Mamba was at the Garden, right when Shump just got into the league. The Knicks were actually dominating the Lakers, largely because of Iman’s defense that clamped up the Laker great. Iman recollected that he was actually super geeked out about having multiple steals against the Lakers legend and celebrating too early. Come the fourth quarter, Iman knew what made Kobe an all-time great.
The Mamba put everybody through the blender, bobbing and weaving through the defense. Handling five players all by himself, Iman knew he had he welcome to the NBA moment that night. All of that bravado couldn’t help the Lakers though, because the Knicks ended up winning the game.
Shumpert also was a Shooting Guard, bar maybe one-two season on paper, which meant some of the quality he had to guard in his rotation was mental. During his career, he’s come up against Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, James Harden, and Bradley Beal to name a few. For a role player, Shumpert did get to play with and against a lot of quality.
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Iman Shumpert is a great storyteller – he’s been on various podcasts, and there has never been a bad story to date.
Iman has been known to be a great storyteller – a lot of these stories have been making the rounds on the internet. There is never a dull moment with him narrating. He captures his audiences all too well, and they’ve been loving it.
After retirement, he’s been doing a lot with his life – He won the latest edition of Dancing with the Stars. He’s also had a music video that was released a couple of years ago, which fared decently.
A lot of players get into the game in some way or the other, it looks like Iman realized a full career, and he’s taking things in his stride. Dancer, storyteller, basketball player – this man can do it all.
