Anthony Davis recounted a personal favorite memory of Kobe Bryant — one day before the Los Angeles Lakers legend is set to be inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
In his post-practice Zoom with reporters on Friday, Davis recalled a Jan. 2015 game between AD's New Orleans Pelicans and the Lakers, in which a 36-year old Bryant dislocated his shoulder mid-game and opted to shoot left-handed.
“I was sitting on the bench and Quincy Pondexter was guarding him,” Davis recalled. “I think the play before, Kobe had dunked and dislocated his right shoulder. There was a timeout, the next play he comes down, catches the ball in the post — no one knew it was dislocated. though, he was just holding his shoulder. I figured something was bothering him. And then he came down the next play and hit a turnaround jumper left-handed from the post. That always sticks in my head. For a guy to dislocate his shoulder and continue to play, come down and say ‘F– it, I'm going to shoot left-handed, I can do it. I can get a bucket with either hand' was just insane to me. And then the first time I've seen it — I mean, I've seen guys shoot left-handed like that — but to do it in a game where it counts and it matters is just so unreal. So that's one of my favorite Kobe moments for sure.”
FWIW, the sequence didn't go down quite as Davis remembers. Bryant actually sat out most of the fourth quarter after injuring his shoulder, the checked himself back in late in the game. However, he did nail a reverse-pivot turnaround J on an appropriately-dismayed Pondexter, putting the Mamba Mentality on full display.
Check out the ridiculous shot:
After the game, the Hall of Famer provided a perfectly on-brand explanation for gutting out the injury in an inconsequential regular-season game:
“I averaged 40 a whole month on a torn labrum.”
Needless to say, there will never be another Kobe Bryant, though the Los Angeles Lakers icon's DNA has been ingrained into an entire generation of hoopers — and competitors, in general.
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