Kobe Bryant may be retired, but his ruthless competitiveness is still felt up and down the Los Angeles Lakers organization.
New Lakers head coach Luke Walton, who was teammates with Bryant on the Lakers for nine seasons, recently appeared on The Uninterrupted’s “Open Run” podcast and shared an unforgettable story from his rookie year about how The Black Mamba barbecued and ate him whole in practice after Walton showed up hungover.
“I probably had too much to drink the night before,” Walton said, per Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk. “So, I came in. I was a rookie. I felt good. And they could smell some alcohol on me, and Kobe informed the rest of the team that nobody was allowed to help me on defense and that I had to guard him the entire practice.
“And I was laughing at first, like, ‘Oh, this is funny,'” continued Walton. “But in Kobe’s mind, in his eyes, it was like, ‘No. I see and smell weakness. I’m going to destroy you today.’ And he taught me that lesson. He taught me that lesson. I mean, he probably scored 70-something in practice that day, and I’m begging for help. None of the teammates would help.
“But his killer instinct and his work ethic, they’ll stick with me forever,” Walton concluded.
Walton’s rookie season was 2003-04, a time when Bryant was just entering the prime of his career. For a hungover 23-year-old to feel the full breadth of Mamba wrath has to be nothing short of a traumatic learning experience, and it sounds like it was.
Of course, Bryant was known for being notoriously tough on teammates in practice, so we’ll see if Walton tries to instill a similar culture of discipline and accountability as Lakers head coach.
