It’s no secret that Kobe Bryant is one of the most competitive players to ever pick up a basketball. The Los Angeles Lakers icon’s ruthlessness on the basketball court is legendary. Just ask Paul Pierce.
Pierce’s peak in the NBA coincided with that of Kobe. During that time, they were two of the top superstars in the league. This only meant that there were going to be fireworks whenever they faced each other on the court. Apparently, this personal rivalry spilled over outside the four corners of the hardcourt — at least from Kobe’s perspective:
“In the commercial … you are supposed to fake it,” Pierce said on a recent episode of the i am athlete podcast as he told his experience of shooting a commercial alongside Bryant. “So I’m going to make a move and he knocks the ball out my hand. … He really trying to play defense. I’m like ‘Dawg, I didn’t come up here for this.’ … I was tripping off of that. I was like, ‘Damn, you really gotta go hard everywhere.’ That’s how hard he went every time.”
“In the commercial you are supposed to fake it. So I’m going to make a move and he knocks the ball out my hand… He really trying to play defense. I’m like ‘Dawg, I didn’t come up here for this.'”
Paul Pierce on Kobe Bryant’s competitiveness pic.twitter.com/Boh4fgZqw4
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPointsApp) April 14, 2023
Well, that’s Kobe Bryant for you. The Lakers legend just never turned off the switch — especially when he had an opportunity to face off against a guy like Paul Pierce.
You have to note that Pierce’s story was from a commercial. When it came to an actual NBA game, Kobe just took it to a whole different level:
“We playing in Boston,” Pierce said. “… It was a point, he put so much pressure on me, I think he shot the ball every single time down. He had like 40 (shots). … He was just trying to take my head off. He was trying to go for 80.”
Pierce then revealed that this went down in the “early years,” before the Lakers and the Celtics went back and forth in the NBA Finals. You can only imagine the level of competitiveness Kobe brought to the table once the stakes were higher.
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