Robert Horry recently spoke about the greatness of Kobe Bryant and the ways that he would try to play mind games with the late NBA legend during an appearance on Byron Scott’s podcast, Saturday. Horry played with Bryant on the Los Angeles Lakers from 1997–2003, while Scott served as a teammate of Bryant’s as well as his head coach.
“We knew how driven Kobe was,” Horry told Scott. “You remember the string game we used to play, right? Kobe couldn’t shoot 3’s back then, so he would always get beat. We’d get to practice, he down there shooting 3’s. ‘You guys can we play?’ And we’d be like, ‘Nah, we ain’t playing today.’ And he would get mad because he wanted revenge, right? And then we’d wait like two or three days. ‘OK, we’ll play today.’ Then he gets beat again, and he go right back to the lab trying to get better.”
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Horry added that it was his drive that made him so great: “We used to mess with him so much about things he could not do. And that dude would be in the gym next morning, 5 AM, 6 AM, trying to prove us wrong. … That’s what made him great, man.”
Scott agreed with Horry, praising Bryant for his work ethic: “I tell people when you talk about KB, the work ethic is unmatched. Magic (Johnson) worked his ass off. James (Worthy) worked his ass off. But this dude, he took it to a whole different level.”
Bryant died in January 2020, along with his daughter Gianna and seven others, in a helicopter crash in Calabasas, California. Following his passing, countless tributes were shared by family, teammates, fans, and more, while the All-Star MVP Award was renamed in his honor.
Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, is currently suing L.A. County officials due to their alleged handling of photos from the crash site.
Check out Horry and Scott’s discussion below.
[Via]