It’s been over a month since the death of Kobe and Gianna Bryant. While time may be moving on, the community hasn’t. As an icon, legend, and role-model for the world, people are still talking about how Kobe has impacted them.
During a recent appearance on Ebro in the Morning, former New York Knick Iman Shumpert shared his own Kobe story, highlighting the Mamba’s world-famous mentality.
“I can’t remember how much he had, but I know I had multiple steals against him …” Shumpert said. “In my head, all I’m thinking of is, ‘When I have this conversation with my brother after the game, how I’m gonna tell him how I stole the ball from Kobe, how I stripped Kobe before he was fixin’ to take a shot, how I drove by Kobe and got a dunk.’ I’m thinking about all these things in my head. I’m so geeked. Then the fourth quarter starts .“
At top of the final quarter, Bryant apparently came up to Shumpert and complimented him on a “great game.”
“I swear I looked at the clock, like, ‘There’s 12 minutes. What you talking about?’ … You ain’t said nothing the whole game,” he said. “I’ve been talking shit, I done stole the ball, I’m hyped as hell … He ain’t said not one word to me.”
It didn’t take long for the young Knick to realize what was actually happening.
“The man came down, fake shot, fake shot, threw it off the glass, caught it, threw it to the corner. I’m like, ‘Bro what you on? You’ve been regular all day!” Shumpert recalled, prompting laughter in the studio. “… That whole good game that I thought I was having is just gone.”
Iman Shumpert with an excellent Kobe Bryant story
This is definitely worth a listenpic.twitter.com/Y1OwRcSEjb
— Hoop Central (@TheHoopCentral) March 14, 2020
Kobe was known for being a closer and a killer in the fourth quarter. Imam thought he was shutting Kobe down until crunch time came and it was time for the Mamba to really turn it on.
The confidence of Kobe at that moment, and the way he was able to back it up, really shows the kind of player he was.
He wasn’t afraid of the big moment, of stepping up when he needed to — and he always delivered.
That’s some really special stuff right there.
