Young Kobe Bryant was a handful to deal with and apparently was pretty quick to anger and aggression. He once punched teammate Samaki Walker during the 2002 championship season. The incident was summed up by coach Phil Jackson as a "boys will be boys" kind of story. However, Walker joined in an interview with the Brown and Scoop show on CBS Sports Radio to fill in his own gaps of the story.
Videos by FanBuzz
We got into it. I'm still figuring it out to this day. ... It was probably one of the craziest, most immature situations because the situation, from what I understand, was over 100 bucks. After practice, we usually get together as a team, and we play the half-court shot game. ...
What everybody will do is put $100 in the pot, shoot a half-court shot, and whoever makes it first, considering everybody else gets their turn, gets the pot. ... [Kobe] won the half-court contest, and the rule is you get 48 hours to pay the $100. There wasn't even 48 hours. Kobe comes to me on the bus and asked me where his 100 bucks are. Believe it or not, out of all the people, he chose me, which is still, to this day, puzzling.
I told him—listen, we were going to shootaround at the time—"Man, I don't have no 100 bucks on me right now." ... I put my earphones back on, and once I put my earphones back on, the most amazing thing happened. Kobe, he sucker-punched me.
Wow. This definitely does not sound like the vino sipping philosophizer we've come to know and appreciate in the last few years. It's certainly one hell of a story to surface during Bryant's retirement tour.
