Transcription
The Kobe Flinch. Now, when I, I'm a we're all bullies, but I'm a smart bully, right? You know who to mess with, you know who not to mess with. Like, one day, our good friend Galani, I was trying to bully him, he fought back. So I know I couldn't. I know, burn. Leave alone. Just leave him alone. So when y was going back, he wasn't backing out, he was backing out. When he, when you did the flinch and he didn't move, what was your reaction?
He's a c. But I mean, obviously, you know, you guys spent so much time together. You know, Kobe, obviously not only physically skilled and and and one of the greatest, but he'll mentally do the it too. So Kobe was someone who will elbow you, grab you. He hit me in my sternum and knocked the wind out of me. That game, he went and tried to, he was guarding me and tried to double and block Dwight Howard's shot, and the rebound came off the rim, and I caught a dunk tip, and he elbowed me all from like here, here, here. Refs didn't call nothing. So it just came to a point where I'm like, this, we're about to fight, plain and simple.
Um, and the ball fake thing really wasn't even premeditated. I mean, if you look at it, I faked the ball, and the play was back door for Vince Carter to get a rip screen to to get a layup. So I didn't even realize how close, like, that touched his nose and his eyelashes, and he literally didn't, just kept chewing his gum and didn't move. But, you know, the funny part that, and I've told this before, so this is after that season. We lost to Boston in seven. They went and played the Lakers in the finals, and the Lakers got that redemption in 2010. So my deal was up. They decided to give JJ more money. They initially said, so JJ kind of took mine and his, or some of mine and in his money. So I was up. So I was actually going to go to Miami. And this is when I started getting calls from Pat Riley, telling me that the big three were kind of forming, that Bron and Bosh were coming, and, you know, our, our, our closing lineup, he was telling me what the closing lineup would be. I'm, I'm like, I'm going to go from Orlando to Miami. Cool. I get a call out of the blue from a number that I don't know, and an LA number, and it happened to be Kobe. I don't know how he got my number, and he's like, this is Kobe. I'm like, yeah, right. Get the out of here. Who's this? Like, no, it's, it's really me. And, uh, you know, so we started talking, and I congratulated him on the championship, and he asked me what I was going to do, and I told him, like, I'm probably going to go to Miami. And he's just like, you know, anyone crazy enough to play with me is crazy enough to, or anyone crazy enough to with me is crazy enough to play with me. Do you want to be a Laker? And I grew up, you know, I was at UCLA when Big fell and then were winning the championships, and I grew up in Northern California, and Showtime was my team. So I'm like, absolutely. And literally three days after that phone call, I'm in LA and I signed the contract. So that kind of us going back and forth. He went and got Ron Artest the year before because Ron tried to choke him during the playoffs, and then he came and got me the next year because I, you know, almost threw the ball in his face. And he's like, I don't want to with you guys no more. I want you to with me. And but funny story about that, obviously, you know, me and Ron known for our defense. It would be times where Kobe would like, really try to cuss us out. Like, if, because we always guarded the best player to save his energy. But there'd be times if that person hit one or two, man, get the, I'm going to guard him. That. So he'd be arguing me and Ron on the court, who was going to guard the best player. So just his competitive nature and and how hard he worked. I mean, I never got a chance to see that before or after. I mean, his dedication to being the absolute best, and you can attest to that. Like, he just always wanted to be the best, no matter what, when, how he was going to do it. And and I always say he had a ton of god-given ability, but I feel like he paid God back every day for how hard he worked with that ability. Was beautiful.
You've been saying a lot lately, in the greatest of all time, Kobe deserves more conversation. I was curious, when you hear the greatest of all time, does it ever get you upset when Tim Duncan's not mentioned at all? Yeah, because I always, he's definitely in mine. I mean, how could he not be? I mean, you, you just look at the body of work and what he's done as a power forward. I mean, he should be in the top five our best of all time. You know what I think too? Not to C you off, Jack. I think there's always a, the list varies from if you played or not. I think guys that don't play don't really understand what some of these dudes were like. And, um, you know, when you talk, when you talk about where Kobe's ranks in the hierarchy of the game, and I've heard Shaq talk about it, us talk about it, when you hear these reporters that didn't plays sometimes outside the top 10, and we're just like, it's crazy. Now to me, but to me, but to me, it's always been a little man's list. Yeah, cuz Kareem's name, name is never mentioned ever. MH. Right. So they, which is normal, cuz you know, nobody roots for Goliath. Everybody always roots for the little guy. And I understand. But, you know, Kareem's name definitely needs to be in there. Kobe, Kareem, Russell, Wilt, Duncan, Shaq are always a little. I'm not in that c. Shaq, you don't stop being mod. I'm most dominant in my top. I'm most dominant. You want to give your top 10? I have five big men in my top. So well, I'm going one through 10. Yes. I go MJ, I go Kobe, I'll go Bron, I go Tim, I go Shaq, I go Magic, I go Bird, I go Kareem, I go Wilt, and I go Bill Russell. That's really clean. Nice. Thank you. By the way, I appreciate that. I mean, I, I mean, always been in my top five, bro. Yeah, I mean, Shaq is very modest. Stop acting like you guys might not catch the same. Why you might not catch the same kind of funny guy? Like, we know. Um, but Shaq is always very modest. And I think what works well for Shaq is because his peers, the guys that played against him, respect him and understand how amazing he was and incredible he was. And not only on the court, I mean, I've heard a ton of stories how he helps the younger players. And I feel like that's what the game is missing. Shaq used to be the ultimate vet. Shaq will buy your car, a whole wardrobe. Like, there's certain things that older players are supposed to do to kind of acclimate the younger guys to what this lifestyle is. And I feel like that's what's missing in today's game because it's, it's kind of the, the blind leading the blind. It's the young kids leading the young kids. And that's why you kind of see a lot of the BS that goes on because there's no vets. But Shaq was really like the ultimate vet when it came to, I'm, I'm going to take care of business on the court, but I'm also going to look out for you and help you and help you dodge them pot, the pitfalls off the court. That's easy for us because that's what our all the smoke is about. If y'all watch our show, we always give people their flowers. And he always had Mall money too, didn't he? Always had Mall money. Always had Mall money. That's for another show. Really? Yeah. Okay. I'm excited for that one. Yes.
Uh, if, if we were building a starting five of dudes that you would want to scrap with, if it went down, and let's say you two are on the roster, who are the other three in the starting five that you're picking? Big fellow, Zebo, and, uh, I'll probably go with James Jones, man. James Jones. Zebo. I keep hearing about James Jones. Kick you in the CH. Heard no. I heard like he come from a family of fighting. Oh, for real? Youngster and all that. And you got to think, Oak was a monster out there. Y. Uh, Anthony Mason, Ron Artest, sheesh. Uh, Xavier McDaniel. Um, Buck Williams. Yeah. So his name just sounds crazy, right? Dude fighting a dude named Buck sounds awful. Just sounds like a bad idea. Yeah. Shaq, who else? Who are you thinking? Guys that you would want to go to war with? Well, definitely these two. Probably a little Oakley. I heard about Z. Zebo. And now, now since they said James Johnson, definitely gotta go with them. But yeah, he's a pro fighter. Yeah. The stories about Oak are insane. About who? I've seen them. About Oak. I've seen them real time. So yeah, that's true. I heard if you owed him money, it didn't matter if it was pregame or halftime. Not even owe money. He was one of my coaches when I was with Charlotte Hornets. And if you, and if you do put a towel on your head, you got to fight him after the game. For real? That, that roded him the wrong way. And he'd be like, we're fighting after the game. He came, he was coaching to our team. Him and Pa Al was trying to change the M of team and bring it to more of a championship field. That's why Jordan brought in, in, in Charlotte. In Charlotte. Okay. He tells J. Wi, we're not putting no towels on the H. We keeping it professional. You know, soon as J. Come out of the game, he has long dreads, put the towel on his head. O Yanks the towel off. I told you we ain't doing that. J. Wallace, he's the highest paid on the team at the time. Go get another towel. Soon as Oak said, I'mma see you after the game. I'm like, and he's coaching, coaching assistant coach. Wow. Coaches come in after the game. We, we get out, we, we got with too, and Mike comes in there, say a couple words. So after Mike says his Li speech, Oak, ten times matter. So they all walk out the locker room. And you know what? In each locker room, you can go out two ways. They all, the coaches walk out, and Oak circles around through the other way. As soon as I see Oak walking to J. Wallace's locker, I just stand. I'm like, oh, you cannot do this. Didn't I say I was gonna slap you? Didn't I say I was gonna slap you? I'm like, oh, please, you're a coach now. You can. I'm looking at him, D his ass, please for me. Oh, please don't slap him. And he goes off for like 10 minutes. And I kind of calm him down to get, and he realized he's a coach now. He came, he came this close to slapping the player. Vince told me from like, back in the Toronto days, that like Oak's hands were like built to slap. The way he described it, slap. They were like, they were like long, and they were like calloused and hard. And he wouldn't punch you, he would just slap the taste out of your mouth. And that's more disrespectful than getting disrespect as a man. To get slapped is like, ah. Put it like this, in Vegas, you know, they got the biggest bouncers. It took 12 of them to get them out of the hotel. 12. And three of them was knocked out. And he's just slapping him. He knocked the first two out by the pool. Get upstairs, he knocked the third one out. And then he had, they all had to burn rush. We've got a code red. Charles Oakley slapping guards at the pool again, laying them out left and right. That's incredible.
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