Kobe Bryant reveals all-time favorite teammates ('It's not Shaq')
Kobe Bryant is not exactly known as a team player.
So it may be surprising to discover, during a Q&A with the Kobe Bryant Basketball Academy at UC Santa Barbara, that the five-time NBA champion and two-time NBA Finals MVP had more than one favorite teammate of all time. "There is two," the Los Angeles Lakers star said.
Though those hoping frenemy Shaquille O'Neal would make the list should brace themselves: "No it's not Shaq."
"But I loved Shaq," Bryant continued. "Me and Shaq won the thing but I didn't particularly like playing with him too much. [Laughs]"
In fact, the answer was a little more down-to-earth: "It's easy. It's Derek Fisher and Pau Gasol."
During the Q&A, Bryant answered a far-ranging set of questions with candor (Can he do the NeNe? "Not without pulling my back") and with good humor (The one skill he struggled learning growing up? "To pass the ball," he joked). And while the Black Mamba said there was no particular NBA player that inspired him ("I don't get inspired by particular players"), Bryant did say he wished he could be like Mike in one aspect:
"If I could change one thing ... the one thing that Michael Jordan had, some of the other players [I played with] had, is massive hands. I have big hands but their hands were huge. It means you could grab the basketball, pick up the basketball, and hold it, and control it in the paint. Which is something I had to work extremely hard at, with my forearms, things like that. If I had to one thing, change one thing, I would have bigger hands."
Bryant also said he learned the triangle offense in two short days.
H/t FTW.
