Kobe Bryant & Tracy McGrady Interview Part 1: On their disputed 1-on-1 game & more | The Jump

[Music] and against McGrady [Applause] the Grady versus Kobe's behind Wow when you first met when you guys first got to know each other as teenagers did you recognize right away you were kind of kindred spirits and the way you approach the game well yeah but he was he was freakishly more athletic and taller than I was and I had to get hit yeah because I was a little bit more reserved and never been around you know somebody worked as hard as he did and I'd learned that from him yeah I had to a polettis is him but the work ethic part I had to get from being around him so how old were you when you guys met was 19 right because you're a year ahead yes yeah this is when I knew okay he likes to play mind games and he always trying to get an edge on whoever his opponents whatever I don't care if I'm his friend whatever so right I told him I said I'm about to go work out and he was like well are you going to work out for your offseason like people need to work out and I'm looking at him like so all right go back to my room change easy chill for a minute I go to the weight room [Laughter] what so I had to start taking notes like this dude right here so he's always gonna have an edge on somebody he had a hard time understanding with sarcasm while just being sarcastic - Disneyland and somebody was afraid of roller coasters I was gonna ask about that why's afraid of roller coaster it wasn't that I was afraid Lisa we just had lunch and this man trying to drag me on a roller coaster which you couldn't see after this him doing that my whole day I was so mad and he was it he was he was not the same residue then we're gonna talk to me once and he was so pissed I was gonna wait till later bruh I'm just gonna get to it now so you have told a story that the to you on a trip to Germany yes where y'all played one-on-one supposedly a gym and according to you you want he's supposedly smoke weed we didn't play one-on-one first of all did you go to he wasn't keeping score what we were doing was it keeping score cold what we were doing we were working on our footwork on the post we were working out individually and then we were working on our stuff on the post let's keep a scope if somebody's playing a workout and if the person scores they keep the ball what is that we wasn't keeping score have you ever been with him where he wasn't keeping scoop that's the question yeah let's be honest that's the question now that you know him has he ever I mean please here's a cup of coffee and keep score he was people score I was to keep a score but 11 to 3 III I'm not gonna pulling nobody in there I remember specific aunt believe the guy that doesn't even know the location where we were playing country the country maybe off now I may forget a lot of things you forgot what report think I'm not gonna forget here's the score there were some lemons oh it was it's okay Jeremy peridot I'll tell you how much so you guys brought different things to it when you were teenagers and working out together and doing all that he was you know straight out of high school so high profile how did you end up in his house I just felt like you know he's been there you know in those those shoes and I felt like what better person to learn from this is all new to me then somebody that's already been through it and you know we became we hit it off instead as I was watching karate flicks we went to a spy I was scared as hell because we ran into Mike Tyson like [Laughter] everybody told me they said is Tracy his potential was off the charts these potentials off the charts and for me it was a time where I was getting a lot of flack for being a young player coming League and I'm looking at another player coming out of high school and I'm like okay we need to make noise like we need to show old guys that we can come out of high school and do some serious damage the older guard so excited about having these young kids from high school come up together my first year I called him like every week or it was a lot that I talked to him on the phone because I was going through it and I know he went through his rookie season so I had somebody to lean on like yo man you know you come out of high school you didn't you know you the man you getting all the shots and then you come to an NBA team and you'll play one game probably 20 minutes and you don't see the floor for another five years like it was just inconsistent and I was being Barry and I was like it was it was doing something my confidence right so I had to lean on him at that time and we talked relentlessly yeah my response was I went there I went to villainess room it was just like okay well wanna bury me here on this everybody's gonna pay for this I'm gonna show everyone that no I was deserving of this planet I'm as a rookie again as a my sophomore season but I used it as motivation some form of vengeance Dale Harris still to this day I mean we talk we joke about it a lot because he really didn't play much and I remember that game when he came to LA with the Dallas Mavericks and he was the head coach of that game yeah that was in 1990 doesn't matter now tracy has said to me that as he started to come up more in the league and that you guys became more rivals on the court he says that's when you stopped hanging out as much not because you didn't like each other but just back then it was like hey if you were going at each other for real you didn't socialize enjoy yourself well let me tell you me tell you story so when he went to Orlando and we were trying to win our championships in LA so I absolutely buried myself even more so in the craft and literally cut everybody out my life is just focused on that but I remember in the playoffs you guys are playing the Milwaukee Bucks and one year and me and Vanessa went out to lunch and went to a restaurant they had TVs and restaurant I remember sitting there and watching I mean you just just cooking big I mean just like I think all the puppy dog was it lucky dog I remember sitting in the restaurant Washington and Televi I said man that dudes the real deal he's made it when we started out like as young as together but I remember feeling like such a sense of joy because of what he was doing so even though I've never actually told him that there's a sense of pride that's as much as I'm going [Laughter]

Channel: ESPN

Views: 5,466,932

Keywords: kobe bryant, tracy mcgrady, kobe and tracy mcgrady interview, kobe bryant interview, kobe bryant tracy mcgrady, kobe tracy mcgrady, kobe interview, kobe tmac, tracy mcgrady kobe bryant, kobe, the jump, espn, tmac kobe, kobe bryant and tracy mcgrady, tracy mcgrady vs kobe bryant, kobe tmac interview, tmac and kobe interview, kobe mcgrady, tmac vs kobe, kobe vs tracy mcgrady, tracy mcgrady and kobe bryant, kobe and tracy mcgrady, nba, nba on espn

Id: 2KgoYwFv6CU

Length: 7min 39sec (459 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/EnergyFax]

Even thou it was a very short amount of time. I'm EXTREMELY greatful he passed away a few years after he retired and not while he was still playing. (obviously i wanted him to live forever) But at least we got to watch and hear him reflect on his legendary career for at least a few years. To see him relaxed and and to be happy with what he accomplished I'm truly grateful we have that. If we would have died a year or 2 before he retired it would have been more devastating. He truly went out on his own terms and left no regrets on the court.

He got everything he could get out his body and mind in the game of basketball. And being a year younger I'm thankful I got to see his career from start to finish.

He was my sports hero for my lifetime. Being in my 40's now I'll never have the connection to a athlete ever again. I feel like who you grow up with is who you get attached to.

I want to see the lakers win more chips and i want to see lebron abd AD's jerseys retired as the next wave of the great lakers greats.

But there will never be another Kobe for me. He was a once in a lifetime sport hero.

May God Rest his and gigi's soul

[u/Bamboo6]

Was that an elbow to my back?

[u/Might_of_Mike]

Third time watching this. No complaints.