The legend of the recently passed Kobe Bryant is one of legend. The guy was and still is, an absolute superstar not just in basketball, but in life. There was no challenge that Bryant would turn down and eventually not conquer.
There is one story out there that a 17-year old high school Bryant competed in pickup games with the Philadelphia 76ers and he would even have a few 1-on-1 games with a few of the players. One of them was Jerry Stackhouse who Bryant supposedly beat consistently.
Knowing about Bryant’s history and the legendary basketball player that he is, the story does not seem so far fetched. However, Stackhouse was a very talented player in his own right and he was not having any of it.
Stackhouse joined ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski on The Woj Pod to set the record straight:
What happened with Kobe was that nobody really wanted to play with Kobe!…Lionel Simmons, you used to always see him pulling Kobe to the side like ‘Man, you’ve got to pass the ball! You’ve got to learn how to do this.’ These stories kind of take on a life of their own. Yes, Kobe had some good days scoring the ball because again, he could handle it so well, but he had tunnel vision at that point and you could see those guys always pulling him to the side. Guys would have pickup games and sometimes, he wouldn’t even be picked up, but again, because he’s been so great since then, these stories go back like ‘Oh, he beat Stackhouse 1-on-1’, come on man. Me being 20-years old, could you imagine a 17-year old beating me, consistently? I’d have hurt him first…did we play 1-on-1? Yes. Did he maybe win a game? Yes. Did he consistently beat Jerry Stackhouse at 20-years old and he was 17? Hell no.
Whatever happened in those gyms back in the mid ’90s, only Stackhouse knows at this point, but there’s no denying how great Bryant was. [lawrence-related id=29063,29053,29044]