Kyle Kuzma became the most popular player in the NBA for a couple of hours after hitting a game-winning triple in front of Bol Bol to give the Los Angeles Lakers a very valuable victory against one of their biggest rivals in the West this season. Kuz’s confidence got boosted after he nailed that 3, even daring to say he could score over Jesus Christ himself in the post-game interview.
“I think Jesus could be in front of me and I’d probably still shoot,” Kuzma said on Monday. “I mean, it doesn’t really matter to me. I got an open look. It’s a play we kind of ran in practice a few times prior to the restart, and Coach had faith in me and called my number and it paid off.”
Unsurprisingly, those remarks created any kind of reaction, including Shaquille O’Neal saying ‘hopefully Jesus doesn’t shut his a– down’ following Kuz’s comments. Moreover, LeBron James and Kevin Durant reacted to the statement, with Bron siding with the 25-year-old and KD choosing Jesus as the winner of a hypothetical 1-on-1 matchup.
“Kuz is a confident kid, a confident young man and I’m happy to have him on our side. You know, he has that confidence and he goes out and displays, he’s worked a lot, like I said, he’s still young and it’s crazy he’s only in his third year, but he’s gone better, his game was starting to slow down at the start of the seeding games at a pace that works not only for himself but works for the team, but, you know, confident player, you gotta have confidence to be able to make a shot like that and make it,” Bron said.
LeBron James on Kyle Kuzma answering an earlier question about the game-winner with “I think Jesus could be in front of me and I’d probably still shoot” video courtesy of the @Lakers: pic.twitter.com/EHryYczLGu
— The Lakers Review (@TheLakersReview) August 11, 2020
On the other hand, KD went with Jesus, joking he’d stop Kuzma.
“I got Jesus gettin a stop,” KD wrote on Twitter.
I got Jesus gettin a stop
— Kevin Durant (@KDTrey5) August 11, 2020
As LeBron said, the kid is extremely confident. He still has a lot to improve in his game, but if he keeps like this, Kuz will lead the team alongside Anthony Davis in the future.