Kobe Bryant was one of the biggest competitors the NBA has seen in 75 years. Bryant always demanded the best from his teammates, as he only had one goal every season: winning. Sometimes, his personality and work ethic gained him some enemies, but that didn’t matter to him.
He always gave his 100% and wanted everybody around him to do the same. One of the biggest stories about this happened when he was teammates with Nick Young. Kobe broke Swaggy P’s thumb but didn’t believe that the player was actually hurt and asked to get things straight and start practicing.
During a recent appearance on Outta Pocket, Young recalled the time Kobe didn’t believe in his injury and went harder on him, using extra force to pass him the ball.
“Once, he didn’t believe I was hurt like hurt or something … he didn’t know he broke my hand basically he broke my thumb and he thought my thumb was just hurt,” Young said. “He was like, ‘man, you faking man, you better start practicing'”.
“And the whole practice he kept throwing the ball extra hard to me… Cause we was on the same team… I was catching it in one hand like, ‘come on, man, damn I told you my thumb hurt’. I was trying to sit down with that… and the trainer had to tell him, ‘his thumb is broken’. We just did an x-ray… He was then first to call me”.
Tough as he was, Kobe also cared about his team, a lot. As Young revealed, he was the first person to call him after his tests came back. These stories show how competitive Kobe was and the things he was ready to do to secure wins. He left a huge mark on the game and those who shared the court with him, even when they tried to push them too hard.
