Nobody took his job as an NBA player more seriously than Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Because of that, a recent story from one of his former teammates, Luke Walton, doesn’t come as much of a surprise.
Apparently early in his career, Walton liked to have a drink or two the night before games.
Bryant didn’t love that.
One time, he decided to teach Walton a valuable lesson.
“I remember one time my rookie year, I came in a little, uh, him [Kobe] and Shaq like to do this as, I think it was just rookies, but any young guy, I probably had too much to drink the night before, so I came in, I was a rookie, I felt good, and they could smell some alcohol on me,” Walton said on the Open Run podcast.
This week: #Lakers head coach Luke Walton! (Not pictured: Richard Jefferson, hiding and waiting to surprise him.) https://t.co/LKkBgYPoZ1 pic.twitter.com/AgmEzLxd2c
— Open Run (@OpenRun) October 12, 2016
“And Kobe informed the rest of the team that no one was allowed to help me on defense, and that I had to guard him the entire practice.”
Yikes.
Needless to say, Walton got a good tutorial in NBA player etiquette that day.
Bryant was always a fascinating personality. And in recent years, after his unfortunate premature passing, a lot of fun anecdotes about him have emerged.
Everything from why he had no friends to his honest opinion of young Steph Curry to the one team he wanted to retire with (not the Lakers) has become public knowledge as of late.
All of it has been extremely interesting to learn.
The video speaks for itself. https://t.co/uoPebEHgYH
— Game 7 (@game7__) July 30, 2022
Walton’s latest story is just the latest thing.
What new tidbits about Bryant will come out next?
Time will tell.
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Jennifer Withers Hoey is a former Business Development Manager who transitioned to writing about sports. With valuable connections all over the West Coast, she has used those contacts to break some of the most interesting stories pertaining to the Portland Trail Blazers, Oregon Ducks, LA Lakers, LA Clippers, Seattle Supersonics (RIP), and more.
