Kobe Bryant was one of the youngest players to ever be drafted into the NBA. He was just 17 years old when he was picked 13th overall in the 1996 NBA Draft by the Charlotte Hornets. But he was traded to the Los Angeles Lakers on draft night.
It was just the beginning of an incredible journey of 20 years where fans saw Kobe go from a young kid with potential to one of the best players of all time. Kobe achieved everything in his career that an NBA player can dream of.
Speaking of dreams, seeing model Cindy Crawford during the 1990s was a dream come true for most people. But during an interview in 1997, it felt like Crawford fell in love with a 19-year-old Kobe.
During the interview with Bryant, Cindy was 31 years old, but it didn’t stop her from heavily flirting with Kobe. For a 19-year-old Kobe handled himself pretty well during the interview, and it impresses fans to this date.
Anyway, the 1997 interview went viral once again recently, and some of the clips from the interview might look shocking to many. The then 31-year-old Crawford tried several times to flirt with the Mamba using analogies.
(Starts at 0:22):
Crawford: You have an unsual name, Kobe. And I know what it means but maybe a lot of people don’t.
Kobe: Yeah, it means tender meat.
Crawford: Does it mean tender, young meat?
Crawford: Do you always dribble before you shoot? (at 5:19)
Kobe: I like to. Yeah, it’s fun.
Crawford: How about a little 1-on-1? Normally when I play, they triple team me. (at 6:27)
Kobe: Okay, that’s cool.
It was obvious that Kobe was just an innocent teenager back then and didn’t even get most of the double-meaning jokes shot at him by Crawford.
But the biggest thing that people still applaud Kobe for is handling the interview with incredible maturity. While Crawford was supposed to be the mature one considering her age, it ended up being Kobe’s responsibility to keep the interview on the right track.
