"I Left That Gym and Said, I Will NEVER Play in The NBA", You'll Be Shocked to Learn That Kobe Bryant Was Able to Shut Down The Great Lil' Bow Wow in a Game of 1-on-1

5x NBA Champion, 2x Finals MVP, 18x NBA All-Star, 81 points in a game vs the Raptors, 60 points and the game winner in his final career game. Kobe Bryant had no shortage of great moments in his NBA career. But who could forget the moment when Kobe truly proved his basketball prowess to the world, when in 2011, he shut out Lil' Bow Bow in a game of 1-on-1. 

I know this blog is kind of a reach, but I thought that video was funny. The way grown adult Bow Wow talks in that interview made me laugh. Based on that 2 minute clip with Shannon Sharpe, it sounds like Bow Wow, who may or may not have been Lil' at the time, was fully under the impression that he could crack an NBA roster before squaring off against Kobe. I don't know what I expected Bow Wow to say. But when he led off his sentence with, "I left that gym and I said..", I did not expect it to finish with, "I will NEVER play in the NBA." 

That's what it took, huh? That was when you realized you weren't an NBA talent? Up until then you thought you had a shot? I'm pretty sure in the mind of 5-foot-4 Bow Wow, at 24-years old, his basketball ceiling was still, "If I was just given a chance, I could get regular season minutes. Maybe not with the Lakers. But I could run point for the Charlotte Bobcats when Kemba needs a breath." 

That interview just cracked me up. Bow Wow's expectations for how impressed people should be that Kobe was able to shut him down seem so preposterously off. The whole tone of that clip was, "You won't believe this guys... but I played Kobe once... and EVEN I couldn't score one basket!"

On top of that, the way Shannon Sharpe almost validates him by exclaiming, "He SKUNKED you?!?!", like anything else was ever going to happen. The way Bow Wow couldn't believe Kobe was able to make up ground and get a hand in his face after a long rebound. The way he says, "He's talking to me like I'm not Bow!" like he couldn't believe Kobe didn't respect his game. 

I had to triple check that I wasn't forgetting about the time Bow Bow played D1-college basketball. Or that he had any sort of basketball background whatsoever beyond starring in Like Mike as a child (he doesn't). Because he talks like that game of 1-on-1 was a true reminder to the world of just how good Kobe is. Like by the time Kobe was 33-years old, it wasn't already abundantly clear to everyone what Kobe brought to the table. Or that only Kobe could make the great basketball playing Bow Wow look so inadequate on the court. Like if Bow Wow had been playing 1-on-1 with Lamar Odom, things would have gone differently. 

"You know me guys, I can hoop. You've seen the movie. You know I'd give buckets to most NBA players. But only Kobe can shut me down like THAT." - Bow Wow probably

I don't mean to take anything away from Kobe. But bitching Bow Bow in a game of 1-on-1 wasn't some eye-popping "Damn Kobe is really like that" moment. I would get his point about what a psycho Kobe was a little more if he was playing defense like that on him in a charity game or something. Which considering how competitive Kobe was, he probably would have done anyways. But there was a season's worth of courtside Lakers' seats on the line. I'd venture to say there's not a player in the NBA who Bow Bow could get a bucket on given those stakes.