Kobe Bryant unquestionably went down as one of the greatest players to have stepped foot on an NBA court. A gifted scorer and a supreme athlete, Kobe would go on to win 5 NBA championships, 2 Finals MVPs, and an MVP.
There was a lot to like about how Kobe played the game, but the one knock on him was always that he wouldn’t pass the ball. Bryant was termed a selfish player on numerous occasions during his career, and it isn’t something he liked to hear.
Stephen A. Smith had been quite close with Kobe for years, and even he once got on him for being selfish. Bryant didn’t take it well coming from someone like Smith and cursed him out for it.
“You did not know more basketball than Kobe Bryant. So, when Kobe Bryant called you, I can quote him for you right now, (voicemail) ‘You know who this is motherf*****r. Get your a** up, pick up the f*****g phone and call me back. That bulls*** you just said.'”
When asked what he said for Bryant to respond in that fashion, Smith said, “‘It’s selfish basketball right now. Look at this shot, look at that shot selection, look at this decision. What the hell is he doing?’ So he called me up and he’ll say, ‘You say you watching basketball, then motherf****r watch the game. You didn’t see this person do this. You didn’t seen him do this, you didn’t see this dude miss this backcut. He don’t know what he’s doing. Stephen A. what you doing? What you talking about?’ And I went like this, ‘But we were talking about you.'”
To go with players perhaps missing their assignments, there was one other reason why Kobe wasn’t too keen on passing. He once told Lakers assistant coach Phil Handy that he doesn’t respect the work ethic of his teammates and hence, won’t pass them the ball. If Kobe saw someone put in the kind of effort that he did, then he was willing to give them the ball, but there weren’t many with that work ethic.
Kobe Bryant Once Went Off At Charles Barkley For Criticizing Him
Smith wasn’t the only one by any means to face Kobe’s wrath for being critical of him. Back in 2006, Bryant was accused of being selfish and not passing the ball in their playoff series against the Phoenix Suns. Kobe pouted in Game 7 of that series by attempting only 3 shots in the second half as if to show to everyone that the only way the Lakers would win is if he was being aggressive.
That led to Charles Barkley criticizing him for not shooting the ball, to try to prove a point, and added that Michael Jordan would never do that. Bryant responded by sending a whole lot of abusive text messages, and it went on for hours as per Charles but the two men would put that aside and be on good terms after it.
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