NBA: Kobe Bryant Once Revealed His Favorite All-Star Teammate

Kobe Bryant once revealed his favorite NBA All-Star teammate and wanted to change the way All-Star games are played.

The NBA All-Star weekend’s festivities are already over but the “Mamba” spirit still lives on. This year’s All-Star weekend concluded what had become a three-day celebration of Bryant’s life. The entire program evidently had a touch of Bryant on it. Almost all participants spoke of his legacy, from the dunk contest, to the game itself, the weekend offered the league as a whole a way to say goodbye to the NBA icon.

Even the 2020 NBA All-Star game’s Most Valuable Player Kawhi Leonard admitted that he got lost for words upon receiving a trophy with Bryant’s name written on it.

“Just to see Kobe’s name on there, it just means a lot to me. He’s a big inspiration in my life. He did a lot for me,” Leonard said upon receiving the Kobe Bryant All-Star MVP award.

But during one of his last exclusive interviews, Bryant addressed the NBA All-Star game and even revealed his favorite All-Star teammate. The Players’ Tribune’s “Knuckleheads Podcast” host and former NBA player Quentin Richardson recently posted a clip from Kobe’s last appearance on the said program.

According to Bryant, the NBA All-Star game has to be “revamped” as it lacks competitiveness. He also emphasized that fans want to see the best pick-up game in the world since the best players in the world are playing against each other.

“I think the All-Star game, in general, needs a little revamping because it used to be competitive,” Bryant said.

“They (fans) don’t want to see you running up and down and dunking, and all this crazy. They want to see what happens when you get this collection of the best basketball players on the planet, and they play, and they go head up against each other. I mean guys play harder in a pick-up game at UCLA and it ain’t billions of people watching,” Bryant emphasized.

Being an 18-time All-Star, Bryant has truly mastered playing the All-Star game. And since Oklahoma City Thunder’s point guard Chris Paul became an All-Star, Bryant has enjoyed playing with him

As per the late NBA legend, he likes playing with Paul simply because they share the same mentality towards competing and winning games. He also said they he and CP would know that when the fourth quarter comes, they are ready to do anything to win the game.

“Me and CP (Chris Paul) used to talk all the time. I don’t think me and CP when we played in an All-Star game, I don’t think we ever lost a game. We used to look at each other and say, “Ok, let’s go”. Fourth-quarter, let’s go get them,” Bryant revealed.