We know Kobe Bryant has some unconventional motivational tactics. We also know that he took the Lakers’ 2008 NBA Finals loss to Boston extremely hard. Put the two together and we have the means by which Bryant egged on his close friend Pau Gasol prior to the 2008-2009 season.
Bryant’s – and Gasol’s – Lakers lost those 2008 Finals to the Celtics, and that summer, Bryant’s United States team beat Gasol’s Spain in the gold medal game at the 2008 Summer Olympics. We’ll let Kobe tell the story from here:
More Kobe storytime — on trash-talking Pau Gasol after the 2008 Summer Olympics: pic.twitter.com/PH49dyb50e
— Baxter Holmes (@BaxterHolmes) February 22, 2016
The rest is history. The Lakers won the next two NBA Finals, beating Orlando in 2009 and getting their revenge on Boston in 2010. Bryant in particular relished the 2010 victory, having found his own means of motivating himself for it. It worked for him, and it seems his tactics worked on Gasol as well.
