Smush Parker: Kobe Bryant refused to talk to me during Lakers practices

Kobe Bryant has never been kind to Smush Parker.

So, this shouldn’t come as a surprise.

Parker, speaking to Dan Le Batard and Bomani Jones on ESPN’s Highly Questionable, talked about his experience playing for Kobe Bryant’s Lakers:

Parker:

He told me one day at practice – I tried to talk to him outside of basketball, about football. And he looked at me in practice and was dead serious and said, ‘You can’t talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me.’

What a ridiculous way to treat someone.

Worse, Kobe hasn’t stopped demeaning his teammates this way.

Michael Jordan famously demanded excellence from his teammates by being a jerk to them until they reached his competitive level. It mostly worked, and the players who couldn’t handle it were weeded out of Chicago. I’m sure Kobe, to some degree, was trying to do the same with Parker.

But now that Kobe can barely get on the court, his act wears thin more quickly.

Parker had no choice but to take the scorn. It was Kobe’s team, and not only did everyone know it, Kobe earned that distinction by outworking and out-producing everyone on the court.

Unless Kobe regains his form, he better cut out this junk. His teammates won’t respond to it forever.