The Most Iconic Kobe Bryant Stories w/ Jayson Tatum, Dwyane Wade, Coach K, D'Angelo Russell and More

do you have a favorite kobe memory or kobe story this is when i knew kobe was a monster though they called timeout code looks at me it's like what you want the [ __ ] to have 50. he looks over and he's like now i'm on the head of you guys who does that dirk calls me and goes look if you need to trade me for kobe i would make that deal in a heartbeat i mean besides my son being born that's like the best day of my life i get my [ __ ] together because this dude right here is on a whole different level than even ammo and i'm supposed to be great and he leans forward and he said coach i promise you i'll destroy him i i got holy [ __ ] so when i hear those stories about kobe and i hear him from so many people i'm like yo was he really like was some of it uh performance art people think those stories are like not real like those stories are real [Music] okay let me share this story with you jay we were in olympics right and this is when i knew kobe was a monster though you hear about it you hear about it but you really if you don't see it you really really don't know and so we get into a city uh one of the cities very late and immediately we all go to the gym you know all my guys is you know as mellow it's b it's brian it's kobe like we all go to the gym we all get our work in it's real late and so after we get done getting our work in me and my guys we say hey like let's meet for breakfast in the morning like if you can't sleep whoever first one wake up hit us up we're gonna go eat and so we do that we probably get like three hours of sleep you can't sleep much when you're traveling across the world you know like we were traveling and we get probably get like three hours of sleep and we we wake up we go down to where the food is as we're walking down you know slobbing with with sleep in our eyes kobe bryant is sitting there with ice on his knees already right so we walk up to cold we like cold what what's up and he was like oh yeah man i just finished uh finish the workout and i'm about to go do another one and at that moment i was like wait hold on we just worked out about three hours ago you know what i mean and like you've done another workout and you bout to go do another one that's when i was like okay i gotta get my stuff together i gotta get my [ __ ] together because this dude right here is on a whole different level uh then even i'm on and i'm supposed to be great right so that's the kind of person he was and that's how he drove me you know what i mean like this little stuff like that i went back and said okay that mean i got to work hard and i got to do more uh so yeah i just wanted to share that little end of the screen he's a beast man that's great i i have a somewhat similar story but in in 07 when i got to do the training camp with you guys in vegas i got there on a sunday we were starting with practice on a monday so i get there sunday afternoon first thing i do is i hit up the duke assistant coaches coach collins coach wojo coach dawkins i'm like can y'all meet me at the gym i just want to get some shots up so i get to the gym and johnny dawkins look looks like he lost his dog like i've never seen this guy look so just disheveled i'm like jd was jd what's going on man and he's like man [ __ ] kobe this guy this guy this guy had me up at 6am this morning he was in the gym for three hours and he said he was doing the same move for three hours he was it was it was like a pick and roll on the left side jab pull up right for three straight hours the guy was just maniacal about his work it's it's it's it's it's incredible it is man it's it is incredible and that's not like people think those stories are like not real like those stories are real like i remember watching one game we got we were getting ready to play the lakers and i remember just you know i'm well i'm a kobe fan i'm watching him warm up and he literally entire warm up he did he did one shot he was in the mid post he just kept turning over the left shoulder over and over and over so i go into the game like okay he bout to turn over the left shoulder over and over and i couldn't stop it but like he i just watched him by himself they just kept giving the ball for the entire 15 20 however long you're out there he kept doing the same thing over and over and over and i was just amazed that and then once the game started i still couldn't stop it and i knew what he was about to do over and over and over again you know and that's just that's a part of his greatness man [Music] my kobe story is we were in the player lounge there was a couple of us um we were playing spades and he kind of came in and we were drinking a little wine playing some space just chilling and he came in sat down put himself a glass and he was kind of like reading a paper so this is 2008 so they had just lost to the celtics in the finals like tragically if memory serves and so he opens up the paper and there's like this article about it and there's a picture of paul pierce so i see it we kind of were and you know like it's kobe bryant listen it's 2008 we're all sitting there [ __ ] kobe bryant sits down and pours a glass of wine we're like what the [ __ ] you know and then we look over and he's tearing out the picture of paul here so he cuts it out and he folds it up he puts in his pocket and like we're all looking at him you know like what's what's going on he's like motivation we're like and then he proceeded to like chug his wine pour another glass chug it poured the third and he was like basically like he looks over and he's like now i'm going to head to you guys we're like okay like we didn't know we didn't know we were racing cool but like i think those two things like back to back i was like oh that's what like that's who he is like that's what this is you know it was funny that is great that is such a great story i so when i hear those stories about kobe and i hear him from so many people i'm like yo was he really like was some of it uh performance art like some of it was like i've gotta i've gotta live up to this reputation like who does that could he have not torn that piece of paper out in his own room and put it in his pocket he wanted someone to know yeah right exactly and obviously we were all like playing but not we were like side-eyed yeah it's awesome it's like it's like the music equivalent is like prince it seems like it's like everybody has a prince or everyone has a kobe story i just love the fact that he comes in the room they're trying to trying to relax have a nice slow night and he takes it upon himself to turn it into a wine checking contest like what the [ __ ] like who does that you're supposed to sip this i know what was your first um welcome to the nba moment on the court was was there somebody you played against very early on where you were kind of like either i can't believe i'm here or they just they locked you up or they scored on you or something you were like okay yeah this is different man i love telling the story i'm not gonna lie man we were in we were in portland we're playing dane i think i think dame had the start of the game i'm guarding them they're like you're gonna guard dame except the challenge i'm like oh cool let's do it so we're out there and i'm just like in all like staying there literally wow so i i'm spilling all through maybe the whole first quarter i'm in all this dude pulls up deep ball three come down foul on me and one look up deep ball three another one another one just back it just it look it felt like it was just all out and i was on this island by myself like no one no one was there to help cole they called timeout code looks at me he's like what you want the [ __ ] to have 50 and i'm like i don't even know what i was just like you know one of those coke goes out and guards them this is when i saw first of all that was my welcome to nba moment just dame [ __ ] heaven i don't know what he had but then seeing code guard him and just beat him up basically like they weren't letting code foul out of that game one and he just beat him up he probably had 50 on me in his game with probably 50. you know like just cope just he shut it down but i watched the rest kind of let code beat the [ __ ] out of them to do it and i was just like man that's that's just reputation one and then two like damn rest really control the game i hope i'm fine from saying that but they control the game you know so it was just that was that was just cool to see that that was my first year for sure [Music] coach do you have any favorite uh kobe stories yeah you know uh a number of them the best one or one of the best ones was you know when we uh we're starting to build a culture at usa basketball he chauncey billups and jason kidd were added to add uh veteran leadership to lebron and carmelo and you know those those guys were great guys and so we're getting ready to uh to get ready for beijing and uh so i'm with my staff in vegas a couple days before the team comes in and all of a sudden there's a knock on the door just two days early and it's kobe he said coach can can i talk to you for a minute and i said certainly so he went to a private room and i said what do you need he said i i i need to ask you a favor and i s i said yeah what is it and he said i want to guard the best perimeter player on every team that we play now he's the nba scoring champ he's the best player in the league at that time he had seven 50-point games that year and he he knew that he would have to change a little bit and be a leader and and but he says i you know i want to guard the best perimeter player and then he pauses and you know his eyes he and jordan have the same had the same eyes they killed you with their eyes and and he leans forward and he said coach i promise y'all destroy him i i got holy [ __ ] i said this is good so uh we go we have a team meeting in the first practice he doesn't take a shot he does not take one shot and he's playing defense and so i call him over afterwards i said you know yo this destroy thing he says coach i i promised you i'll destroy him i said look i've seen you destroy teams offensively will you shoot the freaking ball and he's smart you know he had that smile and he said from then on i was the only coach ever to ask him to shoot and you know what he was doing jj he he had this vision of moments he knew that for us to win the gold medal we would have to beat argentina whether it be in a semis or the gold medal game and that he wanted to guard ginobili believe me he already had that figured out and he was going to prepare to guard china wasn't just to set an example for his team he had that vision crazy so we do play argentina in the semis and we're beating them by 20 points and ginobili gets hurt so now you think we're going to win by 40. and it becomes a six-point game because now he's not interested anymore that's who he is that's who he was god bless him i love the guy and he and lebron developed a relationship that was needed to create the culture and they did now i'm so proud of lebron for doing that and obviously i was very proud of kobe for doing it when you got to work with him this summer was that the summer before your second year yeah that was uh year yeah yeah um take us take us through that process what that was like um you seemed you seem giddy about it in everything that i've read yeah so it it started back when we were in the playoffs kobe was doing a detailed documentary thing on on espn and uh we're playing cleveland in the eastern conference finals we just played game one so we got practice the next day getting ready for game two come back sit down in my locker look at my phone and he would tweet he would tweet it he would tweet the link out and i saw kobe tweeted me oh [ __ ] i i literally sat there and watched it like 20 20 times in a row he did a detail on me in game one and then um i guess he went through my age he texted me he texted me said young fella you know happy for your success you know stay focused keep going whenever you know if you're in later summer you want to work it out just let me know i was like i was like i can't believe it so now i think i'm like all right you know i appreciate everything we'll do fast forward i go out to la to that's that's why i work out with drew i as soon as the plane landed i text kobe this was probably maybe a month later six weeks i'm like what's up cole you know i'm out here in l.a i'll be out for a few weeks you know hopefully we can still get in the gym together say this was a they say this was monday at like i don't know 12 in afternoon he didn't text me back to like saturday and like even like saturday afternoon so if you take me back saturday at like four i text him back at 401 he like so then we met we met like twice at his uh at his office we met like twice you know got to talk to him he showed me around his office and you know he was obviously working on books and stuff like that so we worked out about a week after that and it was just a surreal moment because just looking at him you know remembering myself when i was uh a toddler you know just a young kid watching him on tv and be like that's what i want to be like like this is why i love basketball because he inspired me fast forward now i'm 20 and i'm having a one-on-one interaction with him working out on like i'm here working out with you because you inspired me without even knowing like easily i mean besides my son being born that's like the best day of my life just to be in a gym with him and and work out with him and and learn some tips was just like i would i'll never forget that day how i felt going into the workout how i felt afterwards i just felt like that was just like the coolest thing ever for me and i'll never forget that [Music] we should also mention you had dirk for what was it 19 years 20 years 21 years 21 years 21 years and that i mean if you have a star level player and but look around the league how many people have traded those star level players that's what i was did you ever come close to trading no no so we had one deal i thought we had traded for kobe and we i thought we had a deal for josh howard jason terry and a couple firsts and i had worked it out with jerry bust with the lakers and we had agreed upon it and dirk calls me and goes look if you need to trade me for kobe i would make that deal in a heartbeat and i'm like no that's not going to happen but it obviously fell apart um mitch kupchak i think it was called kobe and said don't do it or jerry west called kobe and said you can't do this and that did that so that he killed the deal this was 07 2007 yeah okay that's when he was like maybe going to go to the bulls too i think there was like a yeah he was talking about but yeah he demanded a trade and we had worked it out and he was ready to come to us do you have a a favorite kobe memory or kobe story yeah i mean we would text every now and then and talking you know when he was getting ready to retire talking business and saying okay now you're on my turf you're gonna have to i'm gonna have to kick your ass and show you what it's all about rookie and [ __ ] like that and text you know and talking trash with him so yeah that was my favorite kobe memory on the court it was a game we had against him where he hit a turnaround three left-handed right in front of us and i stood up and gave him a standing ovation for hitting that three when i got to play usa basketball for a couple summers summer's very early on in my career um kobe asked to shoot with me after practice one day like he asked me to shoot with him i'm like yeah for sure man all right let's do it and he's encouraging me he's talking to me we're going through some shooting drills just me and him it was like you said it was surreal and then i realized like 10 15 minutes into it i'm like this guy's actually like watching how i shoot the ball and then he's asking me questions he's actually trying to learn something right from me like kobe never passed down an opportunity to get better that i i still remember that so vividly like halfway into it just being like oh wait a minute i thought i was watching him but it's actually the other way around watching you right i think for me man when i got into the league obviously michael jordan is my favorite player of all time but for me when i got into lead kobe bryant was the bar you know he was the greatest player in the game uh to me uh before i got in the league but definitely when i got there i mean he was someone i think he was 24 years old at the time when i got in he had three nba championships already you know i mean when you want to talk about the swagger oof i mean kobe had it but as a competitor i knew that kobe was the one for me that i had if i wanted to be great that i had to get on the level of kobe bryant what however i did that i knew i had to get on his level or be respected by him in some way when he looked at me as equal so it pushed me and he pushed me and we didn't talk a lot early on but i feel like when we got to around oh eight in the olympics is when we got close you know um and it all it all started from training like i think once you get around guys you really see who they are and what they're built of because you're around them for what two three months and kobe saw that my grind was very similar to his grind and that me and him did a lot of things where it was just me and him and it wasn't no one else around you know and so he started respecting me in a way that i already had respect for him in um and then he just became like a big brother you know during olympics you know his knowledge of the game even though i was a great player kobe had knowledge of the game that i didn't have and so he became a person that i would go to and just hey what should i do on this play hey you know how i do this and he kind of like you know he came to me and said listen when he heard that i wasn't starting um and he knew that i'm sure he knew that man you know i know d this is tough for d-wade not to be starting on this team but he came to me right away and he eased my mind he was like listen when you cut when you get in the game just me and you on the floor this is what i'm going to do i'm going to pick up 94 feet i'm going to turn these guys and once i turn them you do what you do you come in you know and so i got so many steals and so many dunks and so much because of the unselfishness of a star in our league to tell me hey i'm going to do these things and all you got to do is you know so we just we just built a relationship and that relationship went from respect as competitors to now where i felt like he was a friend and it eventually grew into just a brotherhood and our relationship was something that i'm sure so many people have their own relationships with him um but my relationship with him for me was special because this is a person who you know was michael jordan allen iverson and kobe bryant these are my favorite players to ever play the game of basketball and i had a relationship a real relationship with one of those three for sure and um obviously when i retired you know and i you know you just imagine like okay we're gonna be those two old guys that you know they go to games and when they heat play to l.a and we're going to be on opposite sides and you know it's just going to be that kind of thing you just you see it coming and not to have that you know not to be retired and have somebody that i can chase out to steal because he was doing amazing things after the game of basketball um you know you feel a little lost and i said that when when colby retired i said you know what when kobe retired from basketball i didn't have no one to chase anymore i kind of actually i kind of lost a little bit of my something in me when kobe retired because it was like well who am i chasing now you know i mean who who is that big matchup for me because yeah it's just a younger guy's coming up and you want to make sure but i felt like kobe was the only one that was that was on the level that i was on uh as as one of the top two guards and even though i felt he was on a higher level than me but i still was able to chase him and i didn't have anybody to chase no more so it was kind of like ah okay all right we playing sacramento on a wednesday all right let me just go get this done you know what man it was just different so um you know i i definitely uh i i'm thankful that i was able to have a friendship and that that we had a brotherhood and we shared some intimate that a lot of people didn't know you know from our conversations that we had in the moments we had together i just i feel thankful to that i was worthy enough to have those with such an amazing human being

Channel: JJ Redick

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Keywords: kobe bryant, jj redick kobe bryant, kobe bryant stories, dwyane wade kobe bryant, sue bird kobe bryant, coach k kobe bryant, jayson tatum kobe bryant, d'angelo russell kobe bryant, mark cuban kobe bryant, dwyane wade, sue bird, coach k, jayson tatum, d'angelo russell, mark cuban, the old man and the three, the old man and the three kobe, kobe, kobe stories, om3, om3 kobe

Id: j3D0taSBTNY

Length: 22min 25sec (1345 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 26 2021