NBA guard Isaiah Thomas has fond memories of Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
Thomas, who is currently an unrestricted free agent after getting traded by the Washington Wizards to the Los Angeles Clippers and then getting waived by the Clippers, shared some Bryant stories with Alex Kennedy of Hoops Hype:
“One on-court story that stands out was facing off against Kobe Bryant in my first NBA game,” Thomas said. “I was on the Sacramento Kings and during training camp, Coach Paul Westphal had a rule that nobody could back me down. Everybody always turned the ball over or was forced into a bad shot when they tried to post me up, so he’d always say that nobody could back me down.
“When he subbed me into my first NBA game for the first time, he was telling everybody who they were guarding and he didn’t say who had Kobe. I looked at him like, ‘Uh, who has Kobe?!' Paul Westphal goes, ‘IT, you’ve got Kobe Bryant. Remember, nobody can back you down!' (laughs)
“He was hyping me up and I don’t know if he even realized that Kobe was my favorite player. For three-straight possessions, Kobe Bryant backed me down and he scored two out of three times (laughs). I was just smiling on the way back down the court. It was just hilarious. That was an on-court memory that stands out, even though at that point I didn’t have a close relationship with him yet.
“But the biggest memory for me was when Kobe Bryant and I sat down after every game of my series against the Chicago Bulls in 2017 and watched film together. I had my people send the film to him and he’d look it over. Then, we’d be on speaker phone and he’d be telling me everything that he saw, breaking the game down the way he would if he was in the series. I think that’s why he started doing that Detail show with ESPN because it was basically just like that, but it was just me and him.”
Bryant tributes will continue for a while after his tragic death, as they should. The basketball community will make it a point to never forget Bryant’s legacy both as a player and father. He was an idol to a whole generation of people. Kobe will live on forever.
In 1,346 career games for the Lakers, Bryant cemented himself as one of the greatest Lakers of all time. He finished with career averages of 25.0 points, 5.2 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game.
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