“The Black Mamba” still haunts Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner to this day. Turner shared a hilarious story about Pacers fans turning against them and rooting for the Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant.

The plot twist happened in Myles Turner's rookie year with the Pacers in the 2015-16 NBA season. Turner's first year coincided with Kobe Bryant's 20th and final NBA season.

When Kobe Bryant and the Lakers visited Indy, they wanted to play spoiler and derail Indy's playoff hopes. Myles Turner recalled the Pacers dominated the Lakers for the most part.

However, Bryant went off and the Pacers crowd did something Turner never thought they'd do, per the “Run Your Race” podcast.

“He scores like four or five possessions in a row, crowd's going crazy, ‘Ahhhhhh!' (Paul George) comes up, hits a crazy three. ‘Boooooo!' Our own f*cking crowd, bro…We won the game…they wanted the Lakers to win so bad, bro,” Turner said.

The Pacers and Lakers went in opposite directions that year. Indy had a core featuring Myles Turner, Paul George, George Hill, CJ Miles, and Ian Mahinmi. They won 45 games and made the playoffs.

On the other hand, Bryant led a Lakers team that had Jordan Clarkson, Julius Randle, D'Angelo Russell, Lou Williams, Larry Nance Jr., and ex-Pacer Roy Hibbert. They won just 17 games and missed the playoffs for the third straight year.

The Kobe Bryant fiasco wasn't the only interesting story in Myles Turner's rookie year. He thought the Orlando Magic were going to select him fifth overall in 2015. Instead, they went with first-round bust Mario Hezonja. The selection prompted Turner to say, “Who the f*ck is this?”

Indy's new additions Bruce Brown, Obi Toppin, Jarace Walker, and Ben Sheppard make them a significantly better team in 2023-24. With that in mind, Myles Turner is stoked about this year's Pacers. Their crowd will rally behind them this time around – a far cry from that day in 2015 when Kobe Bryant almost beat them singlehandedly.