You learn something new every day.
Like, did you know that those plastic things on the end of your shoelaces are called “aglets?”
No? See??
Okay here’s another one: did you know that Kobe Bryant still harbors a LOT of shade for Smush Parker for the 2005-2006 season?
It’s true, he does. Here’s what he said:
“I tell Steve, you won MVP but I was playing with Smush Parker. He’s playing with [Leandro] Barbosa. I’m playing with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness. Smush Parker was the worst. He shouldn’t have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.”
Ouch, Smush! Do you need some ice for that burn??
Apparently he doesn’t, because he’s got a few things to say as well:
├óΓé¼┼ôI’m lost for words. It makes me blush. For my name to still come out of that man’s mouth? It makes me blush.”
He admits he even intentionally quit passing Bryant the ball during his second season with the team!
He continued:
├óΓé¼┼ôThe reason I wasn’t a Laker after my second year is because I didn’t bow down to [Bryant]. I didn’t kiss his ass. I wasn’t kissing his feet. Quite frankly, towards the end of the second season, I stopped passing him the ball. I stopped giving him the ball. I started looking him off. Midway through the first season, I tried to at least have a conversation with Kobe Bryant — he is my teammate, he is a co-worker of mine, I see his face every day I go in to work — and I tried to talk with him about football. He tells me I can’t talk to him. He tells me I need more accolades under my belt before I come talk to him. He was dead serious.
├óΓé¼┼ôYou can’t knock the man’s legacy; you can’t knock what he’s done in basketball. His work ethic is tremendous. There’s not an ounce of hate in my blood whatsoever. The guy can play basketball; you’ve seen that throughout his career.
├óΓé¼┼ôWhat I don’t like about him is the man that he is. His personality. How he treats people. I don’t like that side of Kobe Bryant.
├óΓé¼┼ôBasketball is a team sport. It is team-oriented. It is not an individual sport. It’s not tennis or golf. It is a team sport. When you are the star of the team, you have to make your teammates feel comfortable. You have to make them feel welcome. And he did not do that at all.├óΓé¼┬¥
We agree about it being a team sport, and we are happy to see that Parker is taking the high road!
Unfortunately we don’t think she’s two will ever become friends. We WOULD like to see Kobe stop keeping such hate in his heart, that’s for sure!
[Image via AP Images.]