Kobe Bryant refused to talk to Smush Parker during practice

Kobe Bryant is one of the best basketball players of his generation. He’s won 5 championships, as well as garnering a plethora of other accolades such as MVP awards, All-Star appearances, scoring titles, etc., etc.

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He can also be a huge jerk. Throughout his whole career we’ve heard stories about Kobe being rude and condescending to teammates. We’ve seen it on the court with the looks he’ll give a teammate after a mistake or the way he’ll yell at someone on the bench when something doesn’t go right. Then there’s the stories about him off court or at practice doing the same or even worse. Sure, it shows his all-or-nothing devotion to winning, but just because you want to win really bad doesn’t mean you just have a free pass to act horribly towards other people.

One of his favorite targets, as we’ve heard throughout the years, was Smush Parker. Undrafted out of Fordham, Parker bounced all around the world looking for places to play. From 2005-2007 he hooked on with the Los Angeles Lakers, much to the chagrin of Kobe, who was often mean to Parker.

Talking to Dan LeBatard and Bomani Jones on ESPN’s Highly Questionable, Parker reiterated just exactly how Kobe would belittle him during practice. According to Parker, he wasn’t even allowed to talk to Kobe.

From Pro Basketball Talk via ESPN’s Highly Questionable

"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."

None of this is really surprising, just another example of the terrible ways in which Kobe treats the people around him.

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