It’s not often that players in the league talk about playing one-on-one with other players from around the league, so when one starts giving you juicy details about it, you pay attention.
Especially when it’s Kobe Bryant telling you stories about who he played against.
During a notable interview with ESPN’s Chris Palmer – where the two touched on a variety of topics such as whether Bryant can score 50 points in a game again, or how the guard feels about his legacy – the most interesting topic ended up being about one-on-one matches. Here it is:
I always wanted to see you play Tracy McGrady.
I played T-Mac. I cooked him. Roasted him. Wasn’t even close. Ask him, he’ll tell you. When I was about 20, we were in Germany doing some promotional stuff for that other sneaker company and we played basketball every day. We were in the gym all the time. We played three games of one-on-one to 11. I won all three games. One game I won 11-2. After the third game he said he had back spasms and couldn’t play anymore.
His back bothered him for most of his career.
Well, now you know.
What about Kyrie Irving?
[Huge smile, laugh.] Kyrie’s my boy, but he knows he doesn’t have anything for me. He doesn’t want to see me. But it would be fun. I’ve beaten a lot of guys one-on-one, like Reggie Miller and Grant Hill. I used to play Caron Butler all the time in practice when he was with the Lakers. When I was a rookie I used to get Nick Van Exel and Eddie Jones. They know. They’ll tell you. They used to come at me hard but I wasn’t having that. I love going one-on-one with someone. That’s what I do. I’ve never lost. It’s a whole different game, just to have them right in front of you and be able to do whatever you want.
Ask McGrady, though, and he doesn’t quite remember what Bryant is talking about.
We don’t know who, but somebody is definitely lying.
Onto other news from around the league:
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Yesterday, while I was at work, my sister stole my iphone and
tested to see if it can survive a forty foot drop,
just so she can be a youtube sensation. My apple ipad is now broken and she has 83 views.
I know this is entirely off topic but I had to share it with someone!
Very interesting because the T-Mac / Bryant debate was one that my and my boys had – – back in 2001…2002. Back then, it truly appeared that T-Mac was going to be the more productive NBA player.
It was definitely a legitimate discussion. The one with a superstar’s mentality and work ethic obviously remained the better player.