Transcription
Oh, you couldn't stop it. It was unguardable. I was scared to death. He has a killer instinct. That's what makes him so delicate.
These are the times Kobe Bryant humiliated his opponents. At first, Kobe humiliated Chris Paul so bad it got him clowned by his own family.
[Music] [Applause] And Brian right here, good health defense, and then great recovery to get into the passing lane. God damn, he just sonned CP3. And CP3's son agreed. Comes right after the game. Chris Paul tweeted, "Sitting here watching the game, little Chris says, 'Daddy, let me see what Kobe dunked on you.'" Hashtag, "He got damn."
Now, look, Chris's son might be laughing, but Pau Gasol wasn't, because Kobe humiliated him in front of the entire world. See, in the 2008 Olympics, Kobe had one goal in mind: win the gold medal at any cost. And going into a matchup against Team Spain, he wanted to send that message to everyone, especially his best friend, Pau Gasol, who was starting for the Spanish squad. And on any normal day, these two would be laughing, chopping it up, you know, being best friends. But on this date, Pau Gasol was Kobe's worst enemy. And just a minute into the game, Kobe went for blood.
"Bob said he gonna set the tone to start the game, and you said, 'I'm running through Pau's chest.' First play the game, I run into Pau. We was like, 'What?' And you tripping. The initial teammate, you tripping. You ain't about to do that."
[Music] Whoa! We was like, "Holy hell, you just went right to the middle of my chest, trying to get right through me to send a message." Kobe set the mood from the jump, and it worked because Team USA went on to dominate. When it came to Kobe's first gold medal, man, Kobe was straight up scary. And no one was more scared than his next opponent, because Kobe once humiliated someone so badly it destroyed the man's life.
This is Smush Parker, who in 2005 signed with the LA Lakers and became teammates with Kobe. And for most people, playing with the Black Mamba would be a dream come true. But not Smush. Cause in 2008, after being cut by the Lakers, he tried throwing dirt on Kobe's name.
"Play with the leg of the an operator experience. Wow, you know, uh, Bill Jackman was great. I don't know. I don't care what the media said. You know, they said I had a problem. The problem was he never was, uh, with the boy. 20 pulls. Wow. Formerly known as baby man."
[Music] Um, the, the problem with that thing starts with them. Yikes. Yeah, that's it. I hated playing with Kobe. And he was making the beef public. But Kobe, he didn't give a smush a smidge of attention. Cause he ignored his comments for four years straight. Until eventually, in 2012, a reporter happened to ask Kobe about Smush. Man, he finally unleashed, saying, "I almost won an MVP with Smush Parker on my team. That guy was the worst. He shouldn't have even been in the NBA. But we were too cheap to pay for a point guard, so let him walk on the team."
Damn, the Mamba spit venom, and it burned Smush to the point where he started trying to expose Kobe every chance he got. He told me one day in practice, "I try to talk to him outside of, you know, basketball about football." And he looked at me in practice and was dead serious and said, "You can't talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me."
"What personally don't like about him as another man that he is, how he's, you know, his his personality, how he treats his people. I don't mess with that, man. I don't, I don't like that side of Kobe Bryant." But in the end, Smush came to regret everything he said about Kobe, because by 2017, people thought he was just a clout-chasing demon who started clowning him everywhere. So after months of torment, Smush was left with no choice but to issue a public apology and personally write an apology letter to Kobe himself. Man, he should have just smushed his lips shut.
But he's not the only one, because one time a celebrity tried talking trash to Kobe, and it went horribly wrong. See, over the years, Kobe's gone up against some big competition, but in 2010, he came across a small challenge: five-foot-three rapper Lil Bow Wow, who was barking some crazy trash on Twitter, saying, "Kobe's bum ass is weak, he's average, and he knew how to stop him." One-on-one. Yeah. Well, Bow Wow was being a bad duck, but he didn't pause there, because in 2011, after being ignored by Kobe, Bow Wow went from bark to bite, pulling up to one of Kobe's youth basketball camps unannounced to challenge him one-on-one, and it blew up in his face.
"Five thousand. A thousand. Thousand dollars. I feel confident. Ready? Yes, sir. I'm tired as hell. I'm sure you are. About to go three."
[Music] [Applause] Hold on, what's going on? Oh, did the Black Mamba choke you out? What happened, man? What's going on? Everything that he does on 2K, that is real. Damn. Well, Bow Wow got put down. Fun. At least it only cost him a thousand dollars, because one man tried calling himself the Kobe stopper, and that cost him his dignity.
Yeah, in the early 2000s, Reuben Patterson played some pretty good defense against Kobe, and he became known around the league for shutting Kobe down, earning himself the nickname "The Kobe Stopper." They never learned. And in 2004, Kobe's stopper was finally taught a lesson, because in a game against the Lakers, Reuben got matched up with Kobe. When this happened.
"Kobe! Patterson in the air! A wild three! No! I've told you before, this is not the guy you want to let shoot the shot in this building." It seemed to be home for him. And with one minute left, Kobe Bryant ties the ball game up as only Kobe Bryant can do. Yeah, Kobe shot it right over Reuben's head and sent the game into overtime, where the Black Mamba went for the kill.
[Music] Three! [Applause] One second. A catch and shoot situation. They, they got confused. They switched. Ryan was able to catch that ball cleanly. Theo Ratliff comes running out. It's a good shot, and the Lakers have won the Pacific Division title. Man, Kobe stopper stopped nothing. And neither did Dwight Howard, because Kobe once dunked on him so hard it left the man scarred for life.
"The whole crowd was in awe, and I was like, man, I just got dunked on, and I got clowned, you know, for the rest of the season. Not just by my teammates, but my family and my friends. And I could go to the mall, and I would see a, a guy asking for an autograph, but he'll have a shirt that got a picture of me getting dunked on by Kobe. That's not a good feeling." God damn. That's my.
Let's make Kobe and everything, but sometimes he doesn't have to, because he once humiliated Matt Barnes without moving a muscle.
"I think there's very few guys that can play both hard and punch. Seriously, why are they running into each other? Why is Martin, Matt Barnes doing that? Doesn't make any sense to me unless he thinks he can entice Kobe Bryant to get thrown out. And he fakes the ball. I mean, you're not going to get into the head of Kobe Bryant. So we wanted to bring this up, the ball fake. Because from the one angle on the baseline, it looks like Kobe's a cold mother. But from other angles, the new angle that just came out like two years ago or something. Yeah, it's weird. JJ, I put that right in his face. You know me. It was weird because I did see that angle with me. It was two or three years ago. It looks like it was just off to the side. I know that went right in his face. Purely intentional."
Kobe humiliated a child in front of thousands of people. See, in 2011, kids across the country flew to Santa Barbara, California, for the experience of a lifetime: the Kobe Bryant Basketball Academy, where they got a chance to learn hoops from the Black Mamba himself. And with an opportunity this special, you'd think every student in the gym would be respectful to Kobe. But no, there was one kid who didn't give a damn, and he called himself "The White Mamba." Yeah. And not only was he trash-talking Kobe, but he was also telling everyone that he could beat Kobe Bryant one-on-one. So at the end of the camp, Kobe taught this kid the most humiliating lesson of his life.
[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Here we go. Trying to DMO. Black Mamba sizing them up. Oh my God! I see it. He was talking a lot of trash. [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Everybody! [Applause] [Music]
Found out the hard way, because Kobe humiliated him on the biggest night of the kid's life. Back in 2012, Monta was at Madison Square Garden for a matchup with the Lakers. And early in the game, he was putting the clamps on Kobe, bragging about two steals against him. So heading into the second half, I felt on top of the world. I guarded Kobe in the Garden. In my head, all I'm thinking of is when I have this conversation with my brother after the game, how I'm gonna tell him I stole the ball from Kobe, how I drove by Kobe and got a dump. I'm thinking about all these things in my head. I'm like, "So, but if Kobe's taught us one thing, instead of you step to the Black Mamba, eventually you'll get bit."
That's why heading into the fourth quarter, Kobe walked up to Monta and went for the throw. "The fourth quarter start, and Kobe said, 'You had a great game.' The man calm down. You remember he came, shot fake, shot fake, threw it off the glass, caught it, threw it to the corner. I'm like, 'Bro, what you want?' Like, bro, you've been regular all giving over here. Spit back on the foot, drop it off the glass. I'm like, 'Bro, what's going on?' Then he pulled up from like 35 feet on some Steph Curry, but what Steph was doing, he pulled up and laced it. I'm like, 'They called the timeout.' D'Antoni looking at me. I'm like, 'Bro, yeah.' Kobe called game."
Before it was over, but for Kyrie Irving, it was over before it started, because when he was a rookie, he trashed talked Kobe and got humiliated. See, back in 2012, Kyrie got invited to practice with Team USA before the Olympics. And with them being Rookie of the Year, he was feeling himself. So he walked into the gym ready to sauce up any man in the building. But when he saw his idol, Kobe Bryant, standing at the end of the court, Kyrie made a fatal mistake, because he decided to approach Kobe, challenge him to a one-on-one game. And while he thought Kobe would accept, he was dead wrong. Instead, Kobe said no, saying that Kyrie wasn't even worth his time.
"You're not gonna lie, there's not been a hot wheel. Easy one. Easy one. Please."
[Music] Yeah, Kyrie thought Kobe was scared and was talking crazy trash. But if we know anything about Kobe, that's that he always gets the last laugh. So in their very next NBA matchup, Kobe got Kyrie alone and put him in his place on the challenge.
"See if Kyrie does as well. Crowd anticipating a little one-on-one action. Behind the back. Couldn't shake it. Brian sold all-world defender. He flocked. God damn." Kobe took Kyrie back to school. But you took Gerald Wallace to the bank, cause Kobe didn't just humiliate him, he robbed the man for $500,000.
See, with five seconds left in the game, Kobe was at the free-throw line with two shots to seal the win. When all of a sudden, he got yelled at by Wallace, who said, "I bet you'll miss this free throw." And while he was just trying to get in Kobe's head, instead the Mamba got in his wallet, saying, "This time, relish 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 as Kobe's about to shoot the biggest people tonight. Three-point game, 4.8 to play. Man.
When it came to trash talk, Kobe always went the extra mile. In fact, he learned six different languages just to trash talk other players. Yeah, once Kobe made it to the NBA, he started facing players from around the world, and he wanted to embarrass them all in their own tongue. So this man started learning languages left and right. I'm taking Bosnian classes to disuse of Nurkic, to learning French for Tony Parker. I mean, in retirement, Kobe even took up Slovenian to trash talk Luka from the bench.
"A fan is heckling him, and he looks to see who it is, and it's Kobe Bryant. He was talking Slovenian, so I was like, 'Who's talking my language?' And I saw Kobe, and I was like, really surprised. Man, learning new languages to talk trash, that's something only Kobe would do."
So is this next story, because Kobe once humiliated DeMar DeRozan over a pair of shoes. Yeah, see, DeMar's been a fan of Kobe his entire life. And when he hit the NBA, this man became notorious for only wearing Kobe's. In 2012, he was set to face the Lakers and wanted to get in Kobe's head. So going into the game, he laced up a pair of Jordans instead. And Kobe took that personally.
"I was like, 'No, I ain't wearing a shoe and play against him tonight.' So I wore Jordans. Okay. And he said, 'He got those on for?' He was mad at me for doing that. And he ended up hitting the game-winner that night too, talking trash the whole night and everything."
"On the offensive rebound here as well. Under the 24. Kobe Bryant pulls back. Kobe Bryant makes it. Ever since then, I ain't never put another pair of Jordans." Damn. This man Kobe shot him out of the arena. That was cold.
But what he did to Shaq was legendary, cause he once humiliated the Diesel over championship rings. Yeah, in 2004, after winning three titles together, Shaq and Kobe broke up, his teammates wanting to prove they could win on their own. And at first, it was all Diesel, because in 2006, as a member of the Miami Heat, Shaq grabbed himself his fourth ring, putting himself one ahead of Kobe. And, uh, it must have gotten the big guy's head, because just a couple of years later, after Kobe lost his shot at a fourth ring, Shaq started throwing strays at Kobe at a local nightclub.
"Check it, you know how I be. Last week, Kobe couldn't do it. Already."
[Music] But ultimately, it came back to kick the Diesel in his ass, cause in 2010, after winning his fourth title the year before, Kobe got ring number five, officially passing Shaq and putting him in his feelings.
"Do you think I was pissed when you got number five?" "Of course you were." "Oh, no doubt." "I told my house, no doubt." "I bet you did." "I just went crazy because when I got four, you got four. I was like, 'Hey, I got four, he got four.' That's straight. But you got that fifth one." "Yeah." "Hold on. You said I just wanted to get one more." "Absolutely." "She's got one more to Shaq, so you can take that to the bank. Nothing you can do about it either, man."
I'm glad they were able to laugh about the whole thing in the end. Well, look, after everything Kobe's done, he's still got one final opponent that Kobe humiliated, and he's the most legendary of them all: Michael Jordan.
See, during Jordan's final season in the NBA, he led the Wizards to a one-point win over Kobe's Lakers. But instead of just taking the dub and moving on, Jordan wanted to rub it in Kobe's face one last time. So after the game, he walked up to Kobe, looked him dead in the eyes, and said, "You can put my shoes on all you want, but you're never gonna fill them." Yeah, Kobe just got humiliated by his idol. And all he could think about was getting back at Jordan. So Kobe locked himself in the gym, stopped talking to his own teammates, and did nothing but practice until March of 2003, when during their final matchup ever, Kobe Bryant went at Michael Jordan in his tonight.
"Kobe's first jumper. That's good. Long jumper. Three-pointer. Kobe Bryant. He is unbelievable. They trail now by one. Here's his jumper, and that's the first lead of the night for Los Angeles." [Applause] "Another three for Kobe. They'll be guarded by Lou. Kobe's long jumper. Oh, no! He is burning down the house! Can they go that night?" Kobe dropped 42 points in the first half alone, and by the end of the night, he had scored 55 on Jordan's Wizards, marking this game as the passing of the torch from one GOAT to another. Damn. Right there, that is Mamba mentality.
Well, look, as crazy as that was, the way NBA players are spending their millions, this is even crazier. For spending hundreds of thousands on a tank to dropping millions on a castle, these guys know how to blow a bag. Look, if you want to hear more, you need to click on this video right here. This is how NBA stars spend their millions. And, uh, this video is over. So what are you doing? Click it.