Subscribe
Follow Us
Former Los Angeles Lakers forward and current New York Knicks star Julius Randle had a lot to say about his early years playing with Kobe Bryant.
Drafted 7th overall in 2014, Randle was entering a struggling Lakers team that featured an aging, injury-riddled version of Kobe Bryant and not much else. Kobe, who was always known for being very hard on his teammates because of his competitive drive and an unrelenting desire to win, didn't mince words with the rookie Randle during their first year together. Julius actually believes Kobe cussing him out was his “welcome to the league” moment.
“I remember it was preseason, and we were in a locker room and shout out to Nick Young, bro, one of my vets,” Randle narrated on an episode of Podcast P with Paul George. “Somebody had told me something about what [Kobe Bryant] had said in the media. And I was like, bro, ‘Kob say this or whatever.' And me and Nick, somebody talking, and then Kob come in, right?”
“So Nick, bro, you're like, hey, Kob. Juice said that ‘nananana.' Kob was like, ‘What?' So we having this whole conversation. He was like, I don't even remember what he said, bro, in the convo, I just remember he ended it with, ‘Take your ass out there and shoot some jump shots with your broke-ass jump shot'.”
Harsh.
Julius Randle would go on to say how this interaction hurt him, but it helped him be a better player, particularly a better offensive threat, as he wasn't much of a shooter in his early years with the Lakers, being more focused on using his explosiveness to get to the rim and score. But this interaction hit him, and it made him work tirelessly on his “broke-ass jump shot” until it became automatic.
It's an interaction that would go on to serve him well after his years with the Lakers, and carried over to his time with the Knicks.
