 Firstly, before the video begins, I would quickly like to say I hope you guys have a wonderful 2021. I wish you a happy new year. Let's hope 2021 is a lot better than 2020, which I'm sure it will be. The second thing is, I got a lot of comments in my last video about the hair. Yeah. I'm rocking a mullet, so you guys will just have to stick with it for a little while. And then thirdly, the reason why I haven't really been uploading too much on this channel is because I prepared this video. This has taken me a long, long time to make. With all the editing I had to do, the research, I had to go through a lot of clips, I had to find game highlights, go through podcasts, go through interviews and all these sorts of things. This was a project that I was really excited to push forward to you guys, and hopefully you guys enjoyed this. The aim of this series is to make 12 videos, so one episode per month. This is obviously the start, Kobe Bryant. It's a short documentary style kind of collection of his greatest stories told by NBA players or people in the media. And with that, I obviously had to go through actual game footage and find the games that they were talking about. So you guys seem to like these videos in the past, and I think you will love this series. I also added in previous videos that I had on the channel. So if you're watching this video and you're like, I think I've seen that before, that's the reason why. It would really, really help me out if I could have your support. If you enjoyed this video or you're excited for this series, please help me out by leaving a like rating. It helps me out so much. Also, comment down below which player you'd like to see next in this series. And if you're new around here, feel free to hit that subscribe button for NBA content each week. With that said, here's the video. And some of it, I think, is that he emulated some of the things that MJ did as well because MJ was a terror in practice. Yeah, he's hard on his teammates. It was the first time you know, you look at somebody and you can't tell if he's looking at you. Like he's looking dead at me, but I'm like, I don't know if he sees me. I think I'm just like not relevant enough for him, but he couldn't see me and I felt it. Man, when you want to talk about the swagger, oof, when Kobe had it, but as a competitor, I knew that Kobe was the one for me that I had. If I wanted to be great, that I had to get on the level of Kobe Bryant. The entire crowd was watching him, you know, like that's the reach that he had. Every once in a while, you would see flashes. Yeah, he would say some shit, the whole room was like, I still couldn't stop it and I knew what he was about to do over and over and over again, you know. And that's just, that's a part of his greatness, man. Yeah, look at him. You know what? He loves this time. Relishes it. And he and Gerald Wallace are having a conversation. That's Kobe and Gerald Wallace going at each other while Kobe's on the free throw line. Gerald's still talking to him. They're still talking to him. They're still having a conversation. As Kobe's about to shoot the free throw tonight, 3.2, 4.8 to play. And that's not like, people think those stories are like not real. Like those stories are real. Rumor has it, the story where Kobe was playing against the 76ers and Andre Godalla had done a great job on him. Held him to like 7 for 20 shoot. So he literally went, when they went back to Philadelphia, he had that date marked on this calendar. So he came to the locker room and he was like, where's Dre? I was on the court working out, getting ready for the game. And it was Louis Williams. He told Louis Williams, he said, tell Dre 50 tonight. So I come back to the locker room and Louis Williams was like, yo, Dre, Dre, Kobe said 50 tonight. I'm always ready to play against Kobe. So I'm like, okay, so we could match up. Excited about it. So six minutes to go in the fourth quarter. He has 49 and they're about like 20. And he just sucked out. So he got 49 with six minutes to go. The game was over. So that was an interesting night. So he went back and I tracked that game. He made like three threes from like, where it's a staple on the side of the court. He made like three threes from like the P and staples, which was like far. So yeah, and then we got a lot of pick and roll action. I never forget that game. The stories. I remember USA basketball, first practice. You know, he was like, he looked like, I don't want to say old, but he looked like, I was like, man, am I seeing like the end? And, you know, it's like he's starting to decline. I didn't tell anybody that I would never say that out loud. But I was just thinking on my head, you know, because he just wasn't moving, you know, as well as he was. He's missing a lot of shots. Middle of summer, so whatever. But then I found out he'd gone on like a 40 mile bike ride at like 11 PM that night. Got in at like 2 AM. And then he was in the weight room when I got down there at 7 30. So, you know, it was just, it was funny to me, very fitting to me. I was like in my head. I was too scared to say it to anybody else. But I was like, man, am I seeing like the decline? I was like, oh, no, he's just worked out for 40 hours straight. I heard a story about early on your career. You wore him. Obviously you've been wearing him since the 12th grade. When you played against Kobe, did you wear his shoes? Did you wear a different shoe? So, so early on, I remember, I remember who said something to me. I want to, I want to, I'm like this, if you remember this, I remember Vince. Vince was like, when you play against Kobe, did you wear shoes? I'm like, I haven't yet. Like, nah, you, you know, I'm supposed to wear them. I, you're a point opponent shoe. Blah, blah, blah. So I'm like, all right. So the next time I played Kobe, I wore some Jordans. It's a real fucking bang. I should have did as soon as I walked on the court. As soon as I walked on the court, Kobe was like, oh, that's what we doing. That's what we doing motherfucker. And didn't say nothing to me the rest of the game. Hey, you just sounded so much like it right there when he said that. That's what we doing motherfucker. You sounded just like Kobe right there. Dude, that's crazy as hell. He was, he was off you, huh? He was off. Oh man, what? And that game, I swear to God, you can find a game too, bro. I remember I had hit one of, someone hit a shot, put us up like one. They called a timeout in front of our bench. It's my fault to walk past our bench while we was in the hood and said, you left me too much time. Came out and hit the fucking game with it, right? So I was like, man, so after the game and talked to him, he was like, like, damn man, my bad. You know, blah, blah, blah. That's what I said. That's a crazy ass story. That's what I said. Yeah, I don't think I never told that. Yeah. Yeah, but I swear to God that was him when you said it because he didn't say that plenty of times. That shit was crazy. We're in Olympics, right? And this is when I knew Kobe was a monster though. You hear about it. You hear about it, but you really, if you don't see it, you really, really don't know. And so we get into a city. One of the cities is very late and immediately we all go to the gym. You know, all my guys is, you know, it's mellow, it's B, it's brown. It's Kobe. Like we all go to the gym. We all get out working. It's real late. And so after we get done getting out working, me and my guys, we say, hey, let's meet for breakfast in the morning. Like if you can't sleep, whoever first one wake up, hit us up. We're going to go eat. And so we do that. We probably get like three hours of sleep. You can't sleep much when you're traveling across the world. You know, like we were traveling and we get probably get like three hours of sleep and we, we wake up, we go down to where the food is. And as we walking down, you know, slobbing with, with sleeping our eyes, Kobe Bryant is sitting there with ice on his knees already. Right. So we walk up to Kobe, like, what, what's up? And he was like, uh, yeah, man, I just finished, uh, finished the workout and, uh, I'm about to go do another one. And at that moment I was like, wait, hold on. We just worked out about three hours ago. You know what I mean? And like you've done another workout and you about to go do another one. That's when I was like, okay, I got to get my stuff together. I got to get my shit together because this dude right here is on a whole different level. Uh, didn't even I'm on and I'm supposed to be great. Right. So that's the kind of person he was. And that's how he drove me. You know what I mean? Like there's still stuff like that. I went back and said, okay, that means I got to work hard and I got to do more. Uh, so yeah, I just wanted to share that little end of the day. That's great. He's a beast, man. He had a lot of respect for guys who busted their butts, you know, every single day, being that they were very talented or not. But if you came to work every single day and you didn't bag down to him because he would test you, you know, that's the one thing I loved about it. He would test guys in practice. How would he test them? Oh, elbowing them, talking to them, you know, telling them they can't guard him. You know, you got this guy out here and this guy can't hold my jock, you know, but I mean, he would talk so much stuff and he would really just to see how you're going to react to it. You know, and some of it, I think, is that he emulated some of the things that MJ did as well because MJ was a terror in practice. Yeah, he's hard on his teammates. You know, and, you know, I, you know, even the last two years I had him here, you know, I wouldn't allow him to practice much, but there was days where he was like, well, let me just scrimmage. And I was like, yeah, that sounds good. So, you know, we're going to scrimmage it about this time. Come on back out, you know, get yourself back loose and I'm going to let you scrimmage. And he would be in the scrimmage talking the whole time to guys, to Nick Young and to Jeremy Lans and Carlos Boozers and just, and I would sit there sometimes to say, as you're not going to say nothing back. What started that back and forth though? It was like, it was like a testing day for Kobe to test like Jeremy Lans, test me and test like Wesley Johnson and other guys. So, like, from the start, he was killing Jeremy Lans. Like, I guess he wanted Jeremy Lans to be something he wasn't, but he was killing from the start of the practice. I don't know why he got here. He had one good year talking crazy. Like, but during the practice, I'm up here like Jeremy Lans, come on man. You can't go out like this. We ain't going out like this, not today. Come on, man. I'm going to get mad like Jeremy Lans. Come on, man. Kobe, y'all soft like Sherman. I can't even get better practicing with y'all. And he would do it to just see which of these guys he could be in that foxhole with. That's when I was like, all right, Kobe, you talking too much, you can't guard me. Guard me. He was guarding Jeremy Lans. Guard me. Yeah, guard me. Hey, that part. Yeah, guard me. Then we started going back and forth. I said nobody in the world could guard me. That's where it comes from. Because I said nobody in the world could guard me. Like, lucky I'm not from this world. He's good, bro. He's too late. That's a lie. So we going back and forth. It was fun. Then the next day, you know, he won and won a game. And he was like praising us and all that type of shit. I loved that when you waved him off, I think it was against the Spurs. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was the game. That was right after that. That was right after that. I was talking to him. In the interview, I said something about the Sherman tissue or something like that. Yeah. You know, from the yesterday practice, so Kobe talking on that trash kind of inspired me today. So. Yeah. I feel like crazy respect. Crazy. Like Nick's got that mentality that like, yo, I'm going to still shoot. I'm going to play my game and Kobe understands that. Yeah. Yo, which of these guys I can trust to have my back when I'm on the test? It's a test. Yeah. And he was always, you know, testing guys in that way to try to find out, you know, which of these guys I can trust to go to battle with. It was 7.4 women, triple of the night. Like, we had a, fuck, he going to be mad at me for this, but look, we had a blue out. We got blue out at Portland. We was getting blue out in Portland. So everybody, Kobe's in the locker room just waiting for everybody to come in. And you know, everybody, they never got Kobe's on the team. So. Yeah. He come in. And he came in the locker room and he was like, from now on out, every time down the court, I touched the ball. Y'all going to learn what it's like to play with Kobe being fucking bright. How y'all going to wear these shoes and y'all soft? That ain't what we do here in LA. So I'm not thinking nothing of it. You tell everybody to take their shoes off, they Kobe's off. I'm like, what? Okay. I'm just fucking serious. He's dead ass serious. I'm like, what's wrong with you, man? What's wrong with you? No, take them off. Take them off. It's a Nick Young playful ass. We go. We shower and shit. We come back. And y'all dead. And we took them off. Y'all throw them in the middle of like the. In the middle of power. You follow all. He just started grabbing people's shoes and just throwing them. He threw them all in the trash. Oh, wow. He's like, y'all don't deserve these. We shower and shit. We come back. Nick walking the locker room to my spot. Y'all better throw that motherfucker the ball. There's going to be some shit around here. Straight up. Like Nick never took anything serious though. Which I'll start coming away. Yeah. Come back in LeBron's and stuff like that. What'd y'all say? Did anyone say that? I ain't gonna wear those anyway. But we just got the shit kicked out of us and Kobe wasn't going for it. You know what I'm saying? And so I just think mentally like he meant that shit. My Kobe story is we were in the player lounge. There was a couple of us and we were playing spades and he kind of came in and we were drinking a little wine playing some spades, just chilling. And he came in sat down for himself a glass and he was kind of like reading a paper. So this is 2008. So they had just lost to the Celtics in the finals like tragically if memory serves. And so he opens up the paper and there's like this article about it and there's a picture of Paul Pierce. So I see it. We kind of are and you know, like it's Kobe Bryant. Listen, it's 2008. We're all sitting there. Kobe Bryant sits down and pours a glass of wine. We're like, what the fuck? You know, and then we look over and he's tearing out the picture of Paul Pierce. So he cuts it out and he folds it up. He puts it in his pocket and like we're all looking at him. You know, like what's going on? He's like motivation. And then he proceeded to like chug his wine, pour another glass, chug it, pour the third. And he was like basically like he looks over and he's like now I'm one ahead of you guys. We're like, okay. That is great. Great story. I, so when I hear those stories about Kobe and I hear him from so many people, I'm like, yo, was he really like, was some of it performance art? Like some of it was like, I've got to, I've got to live up to this reputation. Like who does that? We show the real world. Yes. That used to be on MTV. Yeah. Kobe was a rookie. Arne was my agent as well. And I was the elder statesman of the firm. And Arne called me up and was like, you know, do you mind talking to this young kid and show him what the NBA is all about and how to conduct yourself? I'm like, okay, yeah, sure. I'll talk to this kid. We were set to play a game of basketball versus the real world cast. It was shot in Hollywood. And all I remember is Gail continuing to say to me, look, when you guys get there, you're going to get there before the cast of real world. All Kobe wants to do is play you one-on-one. He just wants to play you one-on-one, one-on-one, one-on-one. I'm like, look, I'm 10 years in. This is 96, 97 year that summer. So he had one year in. So I'm 10 years in. I'm not going to play this young cat one-on-one. I'm like, all right, I'll play a soft game of one-on-one versus them. But our focus should be going against the real world cast. So we get there and we're playing soft one-on-one. And, you know, I'm doing my step back jumper. I know you've alluded to this before. And he's like, how do you do that move? And I kind of show him because I was trying to take things from him as well. He had this killer crossover. I'm like, wow, how do you do that? So we're exchanging our go-to moves. Well, a conversation turned into text messages and phone calls every day because, like you said, he was gathering information. We reached the bulls in the conference finals and he was like, so what was it like going to get Jordan? He wanted to be bigger than life. And at that time, that person bigger than life and still is, is Michael Jordan. And I didn't have a very strong relationship with MJ. But Kobe wanted to know what was all the intricate talking and trash talking and moves that were going on between MJ and I. What did you do? Like, what were your game plans? What was this? I was like, man, this is that black cat. There was no answer for him, man. We tried this. We tried that. That black cat was doing this and that. And I'm thinking to myself, what does this kid want to know about all this MJ talk for? There's only one black cat. Because I referred to call Michael Jordan or Jordan. I always called him the black cat. The black cat was, you know, we were doing this and I'm talking to Kobe. And I'm like, Kobe, he's like, you know what? Like, you know what? Well, you better get ready for the Carole Mill cat because he's coming. So before the black momma, before the black momma, his nickname was the Carole Mill cat. I'm thinking, this young 17-year-old, I'll talk about the greatest ever. He says, you're going to refer to me as the Carole Mill cat. That's how much confidence he had back then. This is like one year into it. He's like, well, you better get, forget the black cat. You better get ready for the Carole Mill cat because he's coming. And I thought about it. I'm like, fast forward two or three years later. It was 2-1 and then game four that you mentioned, you fouled out. I'm thinking, you already had 50 and 25. Great. Three years later in the NBA finals, that same move that I was showing him in my step back, he hit in game three after Shaq fouled out. Reggie Miller, the marquee matchup we talked about. Look at Reggie Miller squaring him up. These two guys played one-on-one all summer in LA. Kobe takes it between his leg. He pulls it back, hits the jumper, and this sort of gives it, you know, take your time. Everything's cool. As he's running down the court, pass me on the buttons since you never should have showed me that step back. I'm going to kill this young kid. I'm going to kill this young kid. Brilliant. And I hope you guys enjoyed the video. Those were a collection of Kobe Bryant's greatest stories told by NBA players and players in the media. If you guys could help me out by hitting that like button. That's aimed for 2,400 likes for Kobe. Subscribe if you're new, and comment down below which player you'd like me to make next or even a part two of this series with Kobe. But with that said, yeah, I'm out. I'll catch you guys on my next one. Peace.