Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James is without a doubt one of the most competitive individuals in the history of the game. This is exactly why it comes as no surprise that The King once sort of clashed heads with another Lakers icon in Kobe Bryant. Before the Black Mamba's untimely passing in January 2020, he and LeBron were good friends. As it turns out, however, these two had quite the history many years back.

In his new book entitled Coach K, Ian O'Connor of SI provided a bit of a memoir for the colorful career of legendary Duke head coach Mike Krzyzewski. One of the most interesting revelations from the book was about LeBron once demanding from Coach K that he “fix” Kobe. This was during their stint in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, wherein Team USA eventually bagged the gold medal.

Aside from Kobe Bryant and LeBron, that 2008 squad boasted the likes of Dwyane Wade, Carmelo Anthony, and Chris Paul, to name a few. Naturally, Team USA cruised to a gold medal, going 8-0 throughout the tournament. Despite this being the case, however, the squad apparently still had some internal issues that had to be addressed:

Over time, Kobe felt reinvigorated by the unique challenge before him. He had been a pro for 10 years and appreciated the fact that Coach K was motivating him in a way that had nothing to do with money. But standards are standards, and suddenly on the night of Aug. 5, 2008, Bryant wasn’t meeting Team USA’s. He took a few loose shots in the second half against Australia—enough to draw the attention of his teammates. The U.S. won 87–76 but looked exceedingly beatable in doing so. The Americans were eager to get on with the Olympic tournament, and Kobe, apparently bored, seemed to be increasing the degree of difficulty on some attempts.

“Everyone knew it,” says one Team USA staffer. “They know when another player is being selfish. Players can police themselves, but in this instance, as LeBron was coming out of the game, he said to Mike, ‘Yo, Coach, you’d better fix that motherf—–,’ as he walks by. He was talking about Kobe.”

Kobe Bryant has always been known as a shoot-first type of player. His critics have also labeled him as a ball hog throughout his decorated tenure with the Lakers. Apparently, this was the type of vibe he was giving off during that particular Olympic tournament. Nearly every single member of that team was a superstar and Bryant's antics just did not sit well with them — or at least with LeBron in particular. And James wasn't particularly shy about making his feelings known about it.

It does sound like the issue was resolved without incident and Team USA was still able to achieve their ultimate goal regardless. It also does not seem as though LeBron and Kobe harbored any beef between each other after that trip so, in the end, all is well that ends well. For all we know, this may have served as some sort of turning point in their relationship as well.

Nevertheless, this still remains to be a fascinating storyline. I can only imagine how things would have gone down if LeBron called Kobe out to his face instead of raising his grievance with Coach K. That would have definitely been quite a conversation, to say the least.