Smush Parker and Kobe Bryant were the starting backcourt for the Los Angeles Lakers. The gulf in skill between the two prompted Kobe to never build a relationship with Smush and even led to a disrespectful exchange where Kobe told Parker to get more accolades before talking to him. Parker opened up on how he felt when that exchange went down.
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“Everybody knows the story. It’s mid-season, I’m the starting point guard at that time… I ain’t talk to Kobe outside playing basketball, so let me say what’s up. We sit next to each other at practice, we sit next to each other before every game. The story has it, I tried going for some small talk and he shut it down… I felt small, I felt disrespected. There’s some from New York City, so there’s a level of respect you show another man. When that line is crossed, things happen. I don’t need to get into details. I didn’t have a response (for Kobe), I knew my place. I just let it go.”
Before discussing the story, Parker shared the details of the professional relationship he shared with Kobe.
“Off the court, no. A lot of guys might always see each other in practice. That’s just life, we all come in as adults, we all have our family, we all have our friends. A lot of us have sons, wives, and daughters. When we go home, we leave work at work. We go home and take care of business with family. Kobe and I never shared a meal or a milkshake together. When we stepped between those lines, we both were professionals.”
Parker played on the Lakers for two seasons, averaging 11.3 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 3.2 assists while starting 162 straight games for the franchise. The Lakers would return to contention after Parker left the franchise in 2007, making the 2008 NBA Finals and winning back-to-back titles in 2009 and 2010 with Kobe winning Finals MVP.
Kobe Bryant Didn’t Respect Smush Parker
Kobe Bryant made it clear that he never looked at Parker as an equal in basketball. The infamous incident has been described by Parker before.
“One day in practice I tried to talk to Kobe outside of basketball about football. He looked at me dead serious and said, ‘You can’t talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me.'”
Kobe took multiple shots at Parker during their shared time as starting backcourt partners, continuing to harbor bad feelings after his retirement. In a 2019 interview with The Corp With A-Rod and Big Cat, the Lakers legend said he wouldn’t trust Parker even if he was triple-teamed.
“Well, it depends on the team. If I got Smush Parker lagging behind me to shoot, you best believe I’m shooting the m***********.”
Bryant also is on the record saying that Parker never deserved to be in the NBA and was only on the Lakers because the franchise was too cheap to pay for a point guard.
“(Parker was) the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. So we let him walk on.”
The bad feelings run deep, and Parker has previously confirmed that the pair never got a chance to reconcile before Kobe’s untimely passing in 2020.
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