Los Angeles Lakers guard Quinn Cook’s favorite player growing up was Kobe Bryant.
While he came to the Lakers after Bryant retired, Cook still had an interaction with Bryant that he will never forget.
The moment came from Cook’s time with the Golden State Warriors, after one of his biggest performances.
Cook hit three 3-pointers in Game 2 of the 2019 NBA Finals, helping the Warriors even the series with the Toronto Raptors at one game apiece.
Bryant noticed Cook’s big game, and the 27-year-old shared what the legend told him on “The Jim Rome Show.”
“It meant the world,” Cook said. “It meant the world. He told me I had big cajones. If anybody knows Kobe, they know that’s how he talked. And that meant the world, because the year before that in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals I missed a shot to win the game at the same spot.
“I’m getting killed on social media, this is my first big-time playoff experience and, I don’t want to say mistake, but I didn’t come through. I felt bad after the game. Steph [Curry] was texting me a lot that night, ‘Keep your head up, shoot every shot.’ Draymond [Green] texted me and I was with Kevin [Durant] the whole night in his room because we were just talking about adjustments because we were down 3-2, and my mom just texted me, ‘Yo, that’s gonna be your Kobe moment.’
“That’s all I was thinking that night, I just remembered Kobe his rookie year in ’97, the playoffs against Utah, three straight air balls, and that’s what I kept replaying in my mind. I just kept replaying that in my mind, like, ‘This is my Kobe moment.’
“Obviously he’s my idol, he was my favorite player growing up, so that gave me motivation. So for me to hit three 3s the next year in the Finals from the same spot, that was big for me, and I was just always replaying in my mind, ‘That was my Kobe moment.’
“And then for him to acknowledge that the next time I saw him, that meant the world to me because obviously he’s everything to me, and everything to basketball, so for him to acknowledge that. … I didn’t even tell him that I was thinking about him in that moment, so for him to acknowledge me in that moment because he knows how much he means to me, that meant a lot, and that made my entire life.
“And that was obviously the last time we really got to break bread and speak, and I’ll cherish that moment forever.”
While Cook and the Warriors didn’t go on to win the 2019 NBA Finals, his performance helped earn him a spot in Los Angeles.
The Duke University product has appeared in 38 games for the Lakers this season, averaging 4.8 points per game.
Cook will look to follow in his hero’s footsteps, as the Lakers attempt to bring a championship back to L.A. when the 2019-20 season resumes.
