"He didn't believe I was hurt": Kobe Bryant once broke Nick Young's thumb but thought his teammate was faking it to miss practice
The stories of Kobe Bryant being hard on his teammates are very deep in barbershop conversations. Joining the 'Black Mamba' late in his career with the LA Lakers, Nick Young has a first-hand experience of how Bryant treated his teammates.
Bryant and Young were teammates from 2013 to 2016, and it was the time the Lakers were not really good. For the team to get better, Bryant always tried to instill a winning attitude and discipline in his teammates.
As Young described, Bryant had the no excuses attitude and when he sees his teammates in practice, he expects them to go hard. In one particular instance, Young was nursing a hand injury but Bryant thought he was faking it to skip practice.
"He didn't believe I was hurt or something that he thought I was trying to sit out practice and stuff.
"'You faking man, you better start practicing'. And the whole practice he was throwing me the ball extra hard to me so hard I was catching it with one hand like c'mon man, damn, I told you my thumb hurt," tells Young.
As the situation got more serious, team trainers tried to get in between Nick Young and Bryant.
"I will try to sit down and 'Nah Nick, you got to practice,' and the trainer had to tell him, 'His thumb is broken. We just did an x-ray'," narrates Young.
WATCH: Gilbert Arenas and Nick Young share Kobe Bryant stories
Kobe Bryant apologizes to Nick Young
Once Kobe Bryant cooled down, he understood that Young was not faking an injury and made sure to own up to his mistakes.
"He was the first person to call me. I was like 'You are full of s***'," said Young.
During the earlier part of his career with the Lakers, Young gave good scoring with 17.9 points per game during the 2013-14 season. His production regressed due to injuries and had only 13.2 points per game in his final season with the Lakers in 2017.
Nick Young holding it down for the Lakers on Christmas Day. (2013) pic.twitter.com/Ns4SJZ7TIi
Young now reflects on his basketball career in Gilbert Arenas' podcast. In Sept. 2022, Swaggy P dipped his hand in boxing, going up against TikTok Star Malcom Minikon. That clash ended in a no contest after Minikon headbutted Young.