Los Angeles Clippers guard Patrick Beverley isn’t a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, but he is absolutely a fan of late Lakers legend Kobe Bryant.
While making an appearance on J.J. Redick’s podcast, Beverley expressed his intense respect for the former Lakers guard.
When Redick asked Beverley if he thought Bryant belonged in the conversations regarding the greatest NBA players of all time, the hard-nosed Clippers guard offered a definitive answer.
“Yes,” Beverley replied. “Game-changer. When it comes to drive and determination, after M.J. (Michael Jordan), who was it? But no one likes to say it for some reason. Kobe taught people how to work hard. He gave you the blueprint of what you should do to be a successful basketball player. People tend to forget about it.”
Bryant concluded his Hall-of-Fame career at the end of the 2015-16 season. Shortly after his retirement from the NBA, it became clear that he was destined to achieve great things off the basketball court just like he did on it.
Tragically, Bryant passed away earlier this year in a helicopter crash in Southern California. The entire NBA was still healing from the shocking death when the 2019-20 season was unexpectedly halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Despite his passing, it is clear that Bryant’s impact on the NBA is as strong as ever.
Surely, Bryant’s memory will be honored by many players when the 2019-20 season resumes later this month.
Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James uploaded a screenshot of a social media post on…
Los Angeles Lakers players Austin Reaves and Dalton Knecht were familiar with one another before…
The proliferation of superteams in the NBA arguably became normalized once LeBron James teamed up…
Dwight Howard has a compelling case to one day be enshrined in the Naismith Memorial…
There are several productive players in the NBA right now who grew up in the…
A new chapter in the longstanding beef between Dwight Howard and Shaquille O'Neal has come…