The Los Angeles Lakers had an iconic player in the form of Kobe Bryant as the face of the franchise for two decades. During that time, Bryant played with a lot of different teammates in Los Angeles, including current head coach, Luke Walton.

A day before the Lakers will retire Bryant's jersey numbers, Walton talked about his former teammate following Sunday's practice. Walton revealed what stuck out to him about Bryant in the time he played with the five-time champion in Los Angeles.

“What stood out to me about Kobe was once practice started,” Walton said. “The way that he worked. The way that he was the first one in the building even though he's one of the best players in the world. The way that he talked trash every single day, and he didn't just do it in a fun way, he wanted your best, and he was going to give you his. He did it every single day. Those are the type of things that really stuck out to me about playing with Kobe.”

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The one constant among former teammates of Bryant is his undying passion for the game and his seemingly inhuman work ethic that never changed during his playing career. Walton went on to win two titles alongside Bryant in Los Angeles and took that championship experience into his coaching career which is something Kobe predicted his former teammate would do at some point.

Now at the helm of the Lakers coaching staff, Walton will try to get this franchise back in contention in the Western Conference with a solid young core of talented players including Lonzo Ball, Brandon Ingram, and Kyle Kuzma.

On Monday, Walton and company will go up against the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors at the Staples Center with Bryant in attendance for the first time since he retired in April of 2016. Bryant's No. 8 and No. 24 jersey numbers will be retired during a ceremony at halftime as he'll join the likes of other Lakers greats Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and his former teammate, Shaquille O'Neal.