Kobe Bryant amped up his defensive effort late in the 4th quarter of the 2013 All-Star Game and got 2 BIG blocks on LeBron James! Check out both blocks and the reactions afterwards from The Black Mamba, LeBron & Kevin Durant…
According to PBT:
Durant was sincerely impressed.
“I don’t know,” Durant said, when asked when was the last time he saw James get one of his jump shots blocked. “It was a great block. I haven’t really seen any MVP get a jumper blocked like that. It was a really great play. Kobe is a great player.”
Bryant was asked about his competitive nature in locking up LeBron late, but anyone who’s paid any attention to how Kobe operates should already know the answer.
“Well, I mean, just taking the challenge and defending a little bit,” he said. “[The game] gets close, it’s just … It’s fun. I enjoy it.”
It appeared that some friendly words were exchanged between Bryant and James, but Kobe refused to classify it as trash talk.
“Me? Trash talk? Never,” Bryant said with a huge smile. “Never. I don’t do that. I’m a nice guy.”
Alright, then what exactly was LeBron’s reaction to those two plays?
“He didn’t really say much,” Bryant said. “He said I fouled him, and then I said well yeah, I pretty much foul every play. I’m an 80s baby, you know what I mean? That’s what we do.”
James didn’t seem to have any ill will about the way things went down afterward. But at the same time, he wasn’t at all surprised by Bryant’s motivation to give everything he had defensively to try to help his team win, while personally taking on the responsibility of stopping the game’s best player in the process.
“I am absolutely not surprised,” James said. “It was all in good spirit. It was just two guys who love to compete, love to go at it. It was a lot of fun.”
