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Daniel Artest & TJ Kidd Share Their Favorite Moments With Lakers’ Great Kobe Bryant

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During his time on earth, Kobe Bryant inspired many people, and many have numerous memories of the basketball legend.

Two individuals that shared a couple of their favorite memories with the Laker great on Wednesday afternoon on Spotify Live with Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson were Daniel Artest, who is the brother of NBA Champion Ron Artest, and TJ Kidd, who is the son of Dallas Mavericks head coach Jason Kidd.

“My favorite Kobe memory there’s a few, but probably100 percent that [photo with him]. I know it’s hard to hear for Nets fans, but that Kobe and Shaq team was not getting stopped,” said Kidd.

“It’s funny looking back at it that photo for me it just feels like Magic just looking at it. It reminds me of why I love the game so much and what Kobe meant to me and I’m sure to Daniel [Artest] and everyone else that maybe had an interaction with him.”

Artest added, “I guess my first interaction with the late great Mamba was when Ron won a Champion [2010], and he was like your brother’s the man. So, that was pretty cool to hear, and then over the years, he was always very generous with his time, and he was able to see him in the practice facility or postgame. We had this rapport where we talked basketball then I would ask him questions. I knew he was curious because he would ask many questions,” said Artest.

“So, I would asked him a lot of questions about post moves and especially in practice because I knew, if I caught him in practice he going to take me on the court and show me. And I was like hell yeah, let me get some toolidge from the man. That was pretty cool, so it was pretty dope to have those conversations. Little trash talk here and there because I used to tell him in the post you are not going to be able to do anything with me. Your too small and he say let’s play to five or something all post moves. It was cool to have that type of rapport with him.”

I think he’s one of the nicest NBA players I’ve ever met. And it’s just really sad that he is not here and we talk this man in past tense it doesn’t even seem real. It seems like he disappeared just from basketball taking a hiatus and he’ll come back, but its just weird that happened to him on that unfortunate day. It’s just sad because when legends die they die old, so it’s still crazy that gave his life to basketball like that, retired, and then three and half years after he retires, he passes away.”

Artest continued, “There are just certain things that he did like sit with me and just the knowledge because we see those interviews on YouTube Shorts with him, and all that knowledge is gone. We don’t have any of that as far as what he was going to do with his daughter [Gigi Bryant] and how he was mentoring the NBA players coming in. Basketball has taken a step back without a great like him because he was engaging with the players. Everybody loves Jordan, he’s the G.O.A.T, but he wasn’t engaging with these players like Kobe.

He was holding these academies and inviting players to work out, building relationships, and challenging players. All about the next generation; that’s sad. I think my all-time greatest moment was when trying out for the Lakers summer league team and spent like 40 minutes with me on the court because I had a question about the Triangle because we were running that. I was having difficulty with it, and that was a really good moment, and he took his timeout to do that.”

Earlier this year, Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant talked about his favorite Kobe Bryant memory.

“My favorite Kobe moment. It’s a lot of them, but when he tore his rotator cuff, played with his left hand, and hit the turn fade with the left,” said Morant.

“It pretty much described me, if I can go, I’m playing. You know, it’s just that Mamba Mentality, you know that killer mentality never want to give up always fighting and that’s pretty much how I carry myself.”

What do you think?

Written by Landon Buford

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