Transcription
Could you give us any insight on that workout and what you saw in Kobe? What wowed you there?
Well, I think that, you know, I think the one thing, and you remember, he did not play basketball here in the states until he got to high school. He went to Italy with his father, a professional player. And when he went over there, he was, you know, he all of a sudden he becomes a linguist. Oh, you think he spoke at least three languages, and it's a different lifestyle over there, completely different. And when he came back here, all of a sudden he had been playing against all these kids over there, and he was unbelievably skilled. His work ethic, second to none. He wasn't afraid of anything, and it was genuine. It's not verbiage, right?
I saw film on him eventually. The Arntelum, who had, uh, who was an Asian here in town now, he runs the Pistons. He was his Joe, his dad was his Arnold Arntelum was Joe's dad's agent. And so Kobe started hanging around here in this country. And all of a sudden, you know, people were shouting out at him, "You're gonna, you know, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna do?" Well, thought New Jersey was going to draft him. And Aaron told him, "He can't play back here." Now, here's an agent's influence, and he said, "He can't play back here." And why can't he play back here? "We don't want him to play with all this pressure around here." He gets in the draft. I offer to him, I offered the first 10 picks in the draft for Vlad A.D. Vlade Divac, who was a very good center and someone you want to play with. And everyone thought there was something wrong with him. Um, so 1 through 13, they passed on him during the draft. I talked to these people for three weeks. It was almost, I was begging them because the big prize in the deal, we thought we might have a chance to sign Shaquille O'Neal, never knowing that we would get him.
And well, so when we got the Empire, it was, it was like a two-fold message or sending. First of all, it's about improving your dream greatly. And then the financial wherewithal changed the dynamics to this franchise. And Jerry Buss, the late Jerry Buss, who was the owner of the Lakers, he, he had a different seating arrangement that's still in place in this league, different prices to see different players. That's where all this stuff started with him. When we got those two, but it was like, and to watch him work out, it was like ridiculous. Okay? I mean, he was like a man, he's like a man playing against kindergarten people. That's how advanced he was. And he was, he was versatile. He was versatile, but he was a furious, ferocious defender. He was, that's all he did. He wanted to compete.
He went down. We were going to training camp. His first training camp, you cannot sign a contract here in Los Angeles unless you're 18 years old. It has to do with, uh, movie, the movie industry. And right. And so he couldn't even sign a contract. And he would tell me, I said, "What are you doing this weekend?" "I'm gonna go play ball here." I said, "Hey, I said, Kobe, why don't you do this indoors? Don't go out." Get a call from a trainer. He'd broken his wrist playing down at Venice Beach. So he missed training camp. You go over and training camp, me watch him. It's like he almost felt you had to strap him down. He could not sit down. Yeah. And so he had a chance to develop his left hand over there. Okay. Um, but he was just one of those guys that again, size, you two guys, side by side, might be a touch taller. I'm pretty close, but he just, he was just a natural player who, um, when he was born, there was a heck of a lot of goldness sprinkled on this a lot. And he did not disappoint. He played every night. You didn't have to ask him to play hard. That's just what he brought. Um, rest in peace to the great Kobe Bryant.
What's the story from Kobe that you'll always cherish?
You know, there's a lot of things that went on in his life that, that I don't feel comfortable talking about. And I think the thing that made me feel like there was a real trust here with him. When I was working in Memphis, I'd get calls, "What am I going to do? What am I going to do?" And, you know, I guess in some sense, that might have been tampering. I didn't look at tampering because he was, he was at our house all the time. He ate in my house. All I felt more like a father figure with him. And we'd talk about and start talking about things. I said, "Well, Kobe, I said, look, I said, first of all, you know, you put yourself in jeopardy here, okay? You have to look at yourself first. Don't blame anyone else." Exactly. But look, look at, look what you need to do a little bit better. And so it became more and more of a trust issue. He became a free agent, okay? And he called me. His agent then was Rob Pelinka. And so I met them in Orange County in a hotel room. And he said he wanted to come to Memphis to play. Um, and I looked at him, I said, "Never! You kidding me?" And he said, "No." And I said, "Kobe, no, no. Uh, you know, it's just, you belong somewhere out here, okay? You belong somewhere out here." And even though he would have never played there, I just wanted to reassure him that don't feel like you have any obligation with me or the Grizzlies to play here. And because he would have never played there, it wasn't going to happen. And I, I just got to know him that well. And, you know, we would, we would communicate a little bit, not a lot, because I, I do believe the sanctity of a contract. And, um, it's just someone that I really like personally. But he, he got to be tough, okay? Very difficult. Yeah. And I remember one day, uh, he wanted to challenge Shaquille O'Neal. And I said, "Are you crazy or not?" I said, "This big dude, you know, gonna eat you. Leave him alone. Leave a big dude alone." But I had a wonderful relationship with him. Forget it. Forget as a basketball player. I love what he stood for, his commitment to excellence, uh, his commitment to not be afraid to go up there and lead. He wasn't afraid of failing. Once you get afraid of failing, you're gonna fail. He was not afraid.
Well, that's awesome. Like this tattoo, tattoo, right? Once you're a friend, you're afraid to fail, you will fail. You will fail. I like that. I just want to follow up on, on Kobe to Memphis. There was a, there was a slight possibility Kobe would have went to Memphis because we hear about him, no possibly looking at Chicago. I just don't think that that would have happened because you had to look at his life. He was different. He was going to be more successful outside of basketball, okay? He had a, it's almost mentally hit a script in his mind that this is what I'm going to do. And he was gifted in a lot of areas, okay? It wasn't, you know, physically obviously off the charts. Yeah, but mentally he was gifted. Yeah. And he had took this incredible interest in women. Uh, he was going to make a difference in a lot of those kids' lives. And he was just uniquely different. Uh, as I say, I wonder where, you know, where his, what would have been, what would have been the highlight of his life as a player and more importantly, when he walked away from the game. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's what is is so tough to, to understand or come to grips to is with how he approached basketball, just how he was going to approach life in that next phase. Like, you know, I was looking for it as a fan and, you know, as a little brother to his, I became really close to him, right? Uh, the year of his passing. So, you know, I was all into what's next, like, what are you going to do next? And you, you saw the short stories and him publishing books and in everywhere you were the day he'd ask her.
I do. I do. It was in Orlando. I was sitting in my house in Los Angeles. And I was reading the Sunday newspaper. Setting it was a rainy, kind of rainy, overcast day. Not a lot, just drizzly. And I did a call and said, "Did you hear about this helicopter crash?" I said, "No." I said, "Helicopter crash?" Yeah. "Well, we think it's Kobe Bryant's helicopter." He flies in. I said, "Oh my God. He wouldn't be doing that." Mm-hmm. Well, that evening, um, I was pretty worn out. I really was. It was like, "No, this can't happen." And if you've gone that way, it's if they would have just five minutes, nothing, right? Nothing right. And, you know, the thing, the ugly parts of it that came down to lawsuits. Um, my God, it's so tragic. How can he even want to bring it up again, right? But it was, uh, in my house, in a family room, we have a, I have a bowl there. There's a picture of him with Gianna on the sideline of a Laker game. She got her head on his shoulder. Now, that's been there since he's passed away. And they're little things around my house that most people would look at and they would say, "No, you don't. Why would you keep that around?" Because I believe in people. And I particularly believed in him.
When you know, we get him here, Showboat, never forget, in the playoffs, we're playing Utah. No one else would even look. We were awful. No one else would even take a shot. He wasn't afraid. He didn't make him. Somebody said to me, "That's just absolutely awful. It wasn't funny at all." I said, "Watch what happens next year." What happened next year? But he was, you know, he could just too easy. Jackie, we're in the middle of the ABA Finals. What do you got cooking on Prize Picks, man? It's a tie series. So I don't know. I think I'm gonna roll with the, uh, Gabe Vincent and KCP, man. But wait, tell the people what Prize Picks is. So Prize Picks is a daily fantasy app. You pick two to six players, like the video on your screen. Then you pick if they will have more or less than their Prize Picks projection. You're not competing against other people. It's just you versus the projections available. Oh, look, look, I know how much I just want. But wait, tell the people how much they can win on Prize Picks. So you can win up to 25 times your money on any entry. And on top of that, all first-time users that deposit using our promo code podcast P will receive a 100% instant deposit match up to $100. That means if you deposit $20, Prize Picks will give you $20. If you deposit $100, Prize Picks will give you $100. And all I got to say, like I always do.
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Thank you.