Kobe Bryant shared a bond with Russell Westbrook, James Harden

Over the years, Kobe Bryant repeatedly expressed his admiration for current Houston stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook.

Houston Rockets stars James Harden and Russell Westbrook always seemed to share a special bond with NBA legend Kobe Bryant.

While all three men are former guard MVPs, their ties run far deeper than that. Harden and Westbrook were children growing up near Los Angeles when Bryant won his first three NBA titles in the Lakers’ three-peat from 2000 through 2002, giving them a first-hand look at his greatness.

“As a kid, I looked up to Kobe Bryant,” Harden said in 2018.

Harden continued:

The thing I could take away from [Kobe] was that he was passionate. He didn’t care what people said about him. He was just a winner. He did whatever it took to win games, to win championships, and that’s why he’s a legend.

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With Westbrook entering the NBA in 2008 and Harden in 2009, each competed against Bryant for several years on the court before his 2016 retirement. Those battles included a pair of playoff series between the Lakers and Thunder in 2010 and 2012, when both of Houston’s current stars were still playing for Oklahoma City.

All three players were then teammates in the 2012 Summer Olympics, when the U.S. men’s basketball national team won gold in London.

On Sunday, Bryant passed away in a tragic helicopter crash near Los Angeles. He was 41 years old. Everyone on board died, including Bryant’s 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

Though the Rockets played a basketball game later in the day, Harden and Westbrook did not speak to the media after its conclusion — likely owing to all of Sunday’s intense emotions.

Here’s a look back at each man’s history with Bryant over the years.

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Russell Westbrook

On April 30, 2010, Bryant’s Lakers narrowly held off the Thunder, 95-94, in Game 6 of the first round. That clinched the series for the defending champion Lakers, who went on to win the 2010 NBA title, as well.

But the talent of the young Thunder — led by Westbrook, Harden, and Kevin Durant — was undeniable. And Bryant, as a notorious basketball historian, had taken notice. Howard Beck, then with The New York Times, described the Game 6 postgame scene:

Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol, two pillars of a title-contending Lakers team, were on their way to the interview room Friday night, having finished off the Thunder in a tough first-round series.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder’s young guns, were on their way out, having finally succumbed to the Lakers’ size and savvy.

Bryant greeted Durant and Westbrook as an approving father would after a spirited battle on the driveway. He told them they were “a couple of bad” something-somethings, using a phrase that cannot be repeated here. He meant it as a compliment.

“Glad we’re done with you guys,” Bryant said, sounding exhausted and a little exasperated.

A few years later, with Bryant entering the twilight of his storied NBA career, the future Hall of Famer was asked in an interview if any of the league’s current players reminded him of himself.

Bryant’s response:

Westbrook plays mean. He plays mean like I did. With an aggression, much the way I played.

In his final NBA season in 2015-16, Bryant referred to Westbrook as “the most athletic player I’ve ever played against” over his 20 seasons.

The admiration went both ways, of course. When Bryant finished his NBA career with a record 60 points in his final game on April 13, 2016, Westbrook uploaded his astonished reaction to social media.

When Westbrook made history the following year by becoming the first NBA player since Oscar Robertson in 1961-62 to average a triple-double, Bryant passionately defended him on Twitter when Westbrook was accused of seeking out those double-digit numbers.

At the end of the 2016-17 season, which featured a passionate MVP debate around the league between Oklahoma City’s Westbrook and Houston’s Harden, Bryant said he saw himself in both players.

Westbrook ultimately won that season’s award.

James Harden

Harden was in his rookie season during that aforementioned 2010 Lakers-Thunder playoff series, and he hadn’t yet had his superstar breakout.

A little over a year later, Bryant knew that was about to change.

During the 2011 NBA lockout, with players barred from working out at team facilities, both Bryant and Harden played in a Drew League pick-up game in Los Angeles. The game quickly became legendary, with Bryant scoring 45 points and Harden finishing with 44.

Though Bryant naturally hit the game-winning shot, he saw something in Harden that he just knew was destined for stardom. Bryant told the people around him, too.

According to veteran center Tyson Chandler, who now plays with Harden and Westbrook on the Rockets, this how it went down:

He’s come a long way. … Kobe told me during the lockout. We were playing pickup and James was there. Kobe was like, after a pickup game, we were sitting down, icing, he was like, ‘He’s going to be the next one after me.’

I was like, ‘Really?’ This was a young James. [Kobe] was like, ‘He’s going to be the next one after me.’

I’m like, ‘If you say so. You know better than anybody.’ And he’s proven it. James, the work that he’s put in to get to the level he’s at now, fighting for MVP every year, you have to take your hat off to that. You don’t just get there. That’s work. That’s a lot of work, that is not seen, behind closed doors.

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Since then, Harden has become an MVP and is now in his third straight season as the NBA’s top scorer. His current average of 36.1 points per game is the highest by any NBA player in over 30 years.

In 2015, in an appearance on the Jimmy Kimmel Live! show, Bryant was asked which current NBA player he would start a team with.

He chose Harden.

Bryant was still an active NBA player at the time. Though Golden State’s Steph Curry went on to win the 2014-15 MVP award, as voted on by media members, Bryant said after the season that he thought Harden (who finished second) should have been the winner.

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Near the end of the 2017-18 season, when Harden finally did win MVP, Bryant offered an even stronger endorsement of Houston’s star.

In April 2018, Bryant spoke to USA TODAY Sports about that year’s MVP race, in which current Los Angeles Lakers superstar LeBron James finished in second place. Bryant’s comments:

James [Harden] has done so much all season long.

It’s got to be James. I really don’t understand the debate about picking somebody else. I don’t get it. Like, what the hell does this guy have to do? I mean for the last three years, the guy has been absolutely lights out, and now you still want to sit here and debate who should be MVP when he leads the league in scoring [30.4] his assists numbers [8.8] are off the charts, they have the best record in the league [65-17].

If he doesn’t win MVP this year, what the hell is he supposed to do to win MVP, average 40, 15, and 15? I mean, come on now. Enough is enough.

He offered similar comments to ESPN a few days later. “I just don’t know what there’s left for him to do,” Bryant said of Harden.

These examples are just a small sampling of the praise and admiration shown by Bryant to Westbrook and Harden over the years. It all contributes to why it’s so difficult for Houston’s stars and countless others around the NBA to come to grips with Sunday’s tragic event.

During his legendary 20-year career with the Lakers, Bryant was a five-time NBA champion; a two-time MVP and scoring champion; and an 18-time All-Star, among his numerous accolades.

Bryant is survived by his wife, Vanessa, and three other daughters.