Kobe Bryant was one of the hardest-working players to ever play in the NBA. But during his twilight years in the NBA, the Los Angeles Lakers failed to provide him with a competent roster.
So much so that the Lakers missed the playoffs during Bryant’s last three seasons in the NBA. The Mamba was evidently pissed off with the players around him, and things went over the boiling point when he lashed out at Nick Young during practice. It led to Bryant’s legendary ‘Soft as Charmin’ comments. Charmin being a toiled paper brand. Julius Randle was a member of the Los Angeles Lakers then and shared his perspective of Kobe’s trash-talking.
“I was a rookie,” Randle said on a recent episode of Podcast P. “So my leg was broke. I’m in the training room, I’m getting my rehab and stuff. And all I hear is ‘soft as Charmin. Y’all m*****f*****s trash’. Kobe got a deep a** voice, so you hear it. He just going back and forth and I hear Nick [Young], ‘You can’t guard me.’”
Randle added: “Mitch Kupchak was our GM at the time, and Kobe, leaving the court, he’s like, ‘I’m supposed to get better with this s**t?’ And then he walk in the locker room, he like, ‘Ju, what the f**k is this, Ju? I’m supposed to practice? These m*****f*****s are making me worse’. And he just walked out bro.”
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Kobe Bryant returned to the roster after missing all but six games during the 2013-14 NBA season. Bryant was expected to make the Lakers better in the 2014-15 season. It’s no surprise that Bryant went off at his teammates for not playing at an elite level.
Despite the Mamba’s trash talk, the Lakers finished the season with an abysmal 21-61 record. Even at 36 years old, Kobe averaged 22.3 PPG, 5.7 RPG, and 5.6 APG. However, age caught up with Bryant as he shot 37.3% from the field and 29.3% from downtown.
Julius Randle Revealed When He Became A Fan Of Kobe Bryant
The Los Angeles Lakers picked Julius Randle as the seventh overall pick in the 2014 NBA Draft. It was a dream come true for Randle as he grew up a fan of Kobe Bryant and the Lakers.
But how did the two-time NBA All-Star become a fan of Bryant and the Lakers? He explained that in his recent appearance on Podcast P.
“My grandma used to live in southeast Texas and we used to go visit her, and I don’t know if you know about the country, but when you go out there if you don’t got cable, you got three channels,” Randle said.
“That’s how I became a Lakers fan. You only got the three channels right? That’s all you got. So, during Christmas, ABC, the Lakers were always on. That was the only time I could watch basketball and that’s how I became a Kobe [Bryant] fan and a Laker fan hailing from Dallas,” he added.
Randle shared the court with Bryant for essentially one season, as he was sidelined for all but one game during his rookie year due to a leg injury.
During his time with the Lakers, Randle averaged 13.5 PPG, 8.9 RPG, and 2.6 APG. Unfortunately, the Lakers were going through a rebuilding stage at the time and Randle never made the playoffs while donning the iconic Purple and Gold jersey.
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