The late great Kobe Bryant was one of the most vicious competitors during his legendary playing career with the Los Angeles Lakers.
When he was on the court, Bryant's only friend was the basketball itself. The Lakers icon wasn't going to exchange pleasantries with other players and referees once the ball was tipped, and that's part of the reason Bryant won five NBA titles with the Purple and Gold and established himself as arguably the second-greatest shooting guard in league history behind only Michael Jordan.
NBA refs have one of the toughest jobs in sports, so naturally, they are going to make mistakes from time to time. Veteran official Zach Zarba says players usually pat refs on the butt and say something nice when they admit they made a mistake.
However, Bryant was a different animal, especially during his younger days with the Lakers when he wore No. 8.
In a recent interview with Sopan Deb of the New York Times, Zarba shared the story about Bryant's stone-faced response to him when he admitted he missed a foul call during a game.
“It must have been my first year in the league. My ‘welcome to the N.B.A.' moment. I’m reffing a Lakers game and it’s Kobe Bryant. Kobe in 2003, 2004, was younger and brash. He was chasing a legacy. He was a great player and intense. I remember there was one game and Kobe asked about a play. He thought he got fouled on the elbow shooting a jumper. He barked about it,” Zarba said.
“The culture of the N.B.A. is that, for us, if a play in question happens in the first half, you can kind of go in at halftime, look at the play, you can come back and either tell them, ‘Yeah, you were right,' or ‘No, you were wrong.' Sure enough, Kobe got fouled and I missed the play, and it should’ve been a foul.
“When you tell a player and you drop your guard and say, ‘Hey, I missed that play,' 90 percent of the time the player is going to say: ‘Hey, don’t worry about it. You’ll get the next one.' That’s the kind of working environment. I come back out and walk up to Kobe and say: ‘Kobe, you were right. You did get hit on the elbow.' He looked dead at me and I’m expecting a pat on the butt or whatever. He looked at me stone-faced and said, ‘Get it together.' “
This is a classic Kobe Bryant story and one that shouldn't surprise Lakers fans.
The Black Mamba basically demanded excellence from himself, his teammates and the refs. It's one of the reasons Lakers fans fell in love with Bryant and consider him the best player in Los Angeles franchise history.
Stories such as this one from Zarba will continue to keep Bryant's legacy alive even though the Lakers legend is no longer with us.
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