(Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Kobe Bryant was perhaps the most mentally strong player in NBA history.
You could never break him, and nothing would ever bother or intimidate him; you could only make him mad.
That’s why not many people even dared to talk trash to him, let alone a rookie.
That wasn’t the case with Draymond Green, who wanted to make a name for himself in the league even before he got some actual playing time.
In a recent appearance on Jimmy Kimmel’s show, the four-time NBA champion talked about the time he tried to talk smack to Kobe as a rookie (via NBC Sports Bay Area).
Green admitted that he had barely played at all during that game, but they got him on the court to get a defensive stop and force overtime.
He was one-on-one with Bryant, who missed his signature shot to seal the win.
Green was pumped up and ran his mouth, but Kobe was completely unbothered:
“I said, ‘Yeah! Let’s go baby, we’re going to overtime.’ He said, ‘C’mon young fella, that aint have nothing to do with you, I just missed.’ So you get him back like, ‘Yeah, you know I locked that up!’ Meanwhile he just walks away looking like, ‘Whatever.’
That’s the kind of relentless competitor Kobe was.
Even if Green’s defense had forced him to miss the shot, he was just never going to admit it.
Granted, Kobe embraced multiple young players and gave them their flowers over the course of time, but Green was a barely-known second-round rookie at the time, and he had to earn his stripes and Kobe’s respect.
Fast forward to today, and it’s more than safe to say that that would’ve been the case.
But even if they were buddies, Kobe spared no victims on the court, and nothing else mattered when he was between the lines.
The post Draymond Green Recalls Time He Tried To Trash Talk Kobe Bryant appeared first on The Cold Wire.