Throughout his NBA career, Kobe Bryant was always criticized for not being nice to his teammates. There have been several encounters when the Mamba has flat out insulted his teammates. In a twisted way that was Kobe’s method of motivating his colleagues.
After all, he was one of the hardest workers in the league, and when someone didn’t even try to train at his level, it pissed him off. While on the court, Kobe had this persona, off the court he was nice to people. One of the best examples of it was during the 2009 NBA Finals.
Guillermo Rodriguez has been known for his notorious interviews with NBA superstars during the NBA Finals. He has given many hilarious moments to NBA fans thanks to his amazing personality and for lack of a better word, unconventional questions, which he usually asks players.
Coming back to the topic at hand, during the 2009 NBA Finals, Guillermo interviewed Bryant. This short interaction between the two led to a funny moment, which many fans remember to this date. This is how the conversation went between the two:
Guillermo: “Do you like basketball?”
Kobe: “A little bit, I enjoy it.”
Guillermo: “Me too.”
Kobe: “Do you play?”
Guillermo: “Yeah, I do.”
Kobe: “What position do you play? You play center?”
Guillermo: ” No, guard.”
Kobe: “You play guard? That’s surprising. I think a man of your size will play center.”
Guillermo: “Well, I play only with Mexican guys.”
You can watch the entire interview by swiping right on this post from “Kicks” Instagram page. Looking at this post, it once again reminded many that deep down the Mamba was a nice guy. Many fans further shared their views upon seeing the post. Here are some of the best reactions to it.
keaton662: “Guillermo is the GOAT.”
bwthsnt: “Legend says Kobe went on and dropped 50.”
kjvillian5oo: “Kobe kobe kobe “
jloading_11: “That was a very lucky handshake, LeBron should’ve shook his hand in 2014,2015,2017 and 2018 .”
chris29official: “Man I miss Kobe .”
laylow.ki: “Dude either tried to call the great godly Guillermo tall being nice or called him fat .”
lushfulthinking: “Still weird knowing hes actually gone.”
londonswizz: “Fu*****k life .. death is really a MF but if we God I know Kobe is hooping with the angles and for sure he getting mad buckets.. love you KOB.”
getyourswoosh0n: “Dam man still cant believe he gone.”
It was a genuinely great interaction between the two guys. Kobe went on to win the 2009 NBA finals as Guillermo wished him to do so. Moreover, he also led the Lakers to the 2010 NBA Championship, which was the 5th and last ring of Bryant’s career.
Following these outings to the finals, Kobe started to miss time due to injuries and the overall quality of the players around him also declined. He retired in 2016 in insane fashion when he scored 60 points in the last game of his career.
If you loved the conversation between Guillermo and Kobe, you can check Guillermo’s best moments in the video below:
