Los Angeles Lakers legend Kobe Bryant played in the NBA for 20 years. During his career in the league, he built a reputation for being one of the fiercest guys. Be it on the court or training in the gym, Kobe was always keen on being the hardest worker out there.
Sometimes, in his pursuit to become the greatest, the Mamba used to be a bit too harsh on his teammates. More often than not, it resulted in him not having many friends.
But all his sacrifices were worth it, as he achieved everything an athlete could think of in the NBA. Be it individual awards or team accolades, Bryant had everything on his resume before bidding farewell to the league.
Speaking of not having many true friends, Kobe was asked this very question in an interview. In the interview, Kobe confirmed that he hated people and didn’t have friends:
“Um, do I have friends? No, I have no friends. Yeah, no, Zero. I hate people.”
He was further asked if Michael Jordan his friend, “He’s a good mentor, he’s like a big brother. I’ll (speak to him) every once in a while. He tries to compete with me all the time. The last time we had dinner, he was talking about, you know, my year in 1991 versus your peak year in 2003. I would’ve kicked your a**. I said ‘Mike, come on now, enjoy the salad! We both know that’s not going to happen.”
This is not the first time Bryant has been open about not having any friends in real life. He revealed when he was in Italy; he didn’t have any friends, but had the game of basketball to keep him company.
When you are committed to something as much as Kobe was to basketball, sometimes you might drift apart from other people. Whether Kobe had friends or not, he was still a beloved superstar and NBA fans miss him each day.
