Kobe Bryant, more than most, gets a lot of blame for being a bad teammate.
His no-nonsense type of attitude demands the best from everyone on the court, and he won’t sugar coat things for anyone. In a chat with The Corp, Kobe talked about his rep as a bad teammate, and how it might’ve been misunderstood, even telling a story of how he missed out on breaking the consecutive 40 point game record for Shaq and Phil Jackson.
It’s really quite an interesting bit overall.
He says that during the game (when he had the chance to break the record), he passed up an open shot and threw it to Shaq in the post, scoring only 38 points that night instead of 40.
Phil had asked him to “dial it back” because the spotlight on Kobe was apparently “losing the big man.” That’s not something we ever heard.
In the same chat, The Mamba also talks about what really made him mad about Shaq. He revealed that O’Neal would “relax” in the summertime because he had a superstar teammate to rely on, and even started rumors saying that Kobe couldn’t win without him.
No matter your opinion of Kobe, this should shed a little bit of light on the reality of his time with the Lakers. It’s not so much being a bad teammate more than it is just demanding the best out of everyone each and every single night.
