During the 2000s, Kobe Bryant and Paul Pierce faced off plenty of times against each other. Those individual battles were definitely pretty amazing, on top of that, the two superstars played for long-time rival teams, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics.
With that element added to the battles, those matches became even more enjoyable for NBA fans all around the globe. While most fans are aware of the aforementioned battles, there were some matches between Kobe and Paul that didn’t take place on the court.
Pierce himself revealed one such story about Bryant and himself in a recent interview with Fubo Sports. He said:
“People don’t even know about this because we used to play in the summertime at UCLA,” Pierce said. “It used to get kind of like firey between me and him because we’re still Celtics and Lakers. But we had some good battles then. I’m one-on-one with Kobe, and this is a commercial. We’re acting. … So I’m making a move, he ripped me. So I make a move again, he knocked the ball out again. I’m like ‘Dude, this is a commercial. We’re trying to make it look good. So now we’re in a full-blown one-on-one like sweating. But that was just Kobe.
Such stories about Bryant aren’t surprising after all, but we are all aware of how competitive he could become. One fine example of this was when he got competitive with Kawhi Leonard over the fact who had attempted more shots in a game.
Anyway, the story by Pierce is certainly new, and not many people might be aware of it. At the end of the day, it once again signified how dedicated Kobe was towards the game of basketball as he didn’t want to slack off even while shooting a commercial.
