With the NBA season still in limbo, Jeremy Lin decided to give thirsty fans a great Kobe Bryant anecdote from the 2014-15 season.
It was just before the 2015 trade deadline and Kobe had become a bit disenchanted with his teammates who were racking up a dismal record in his absence.
Mamba was out for the season at that point and didn’t spend much time around the team, but one particular day he decided to drop in on a practice.
Lin went on Inside the Green Room with Danny Green and had this to say:
“He was just stone-faced, and he was like ‘I just came by to say bye to some of you bums who are going to get traded tomorrow.’ And then he sits down at the table where you control the scoreboard at the practice facility and he said a couple words to the coach, and then he left. And I remember one of my teammates was just like ‘I lost all motivation to practice.'”
Green, who currently plays for the Los Angeles Lakers, had plenty of run-ins against Kobe as a member of the Spurs, couldn’t help but laugh at the quintessential Kobe story.
Although funny, anyone familiar with Bryant would know it was more than likely a true story that wasn’t fabricated.
Kobe’s last few seasons in the NBA were tough to watch.
The Lakers had a weak roster and got blown out many nights on their way to one of their worst records ever.
It was a hard dose of reality for Bryant to swallow.
What made matters awkward for his teammates was that no player was traded before the 2015 deadline.
Bryant would go on to come back for the 2015-16 NBA season and would retire following a 60-point outing against the Utah Jazz.
Kobe may be gone, but more of his stories are sure to come.
RIP Mamba.