Charles Barkley recalls rare humbling moment for Kobe Bryant: “We all big Kobe Bryant fans, but what he did tonight was total bulls**t”
After his retirement from the game in 2000, Charles Barkley remained a fixture of the NBA. Finding his rhythm behind the desk with the "Inside the NBA" crew on TNT, he was able to remain in the spotlight and close to the game he loves. Despite that, Barkley will occasionally find himself at odds with some of the league's best players as a result of comments he makes at one time or another.
Such was the case many years ago when Bryant and the LA Lakers were taking on the Phoenix Suns. For a reason unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Bryant seemed gunshy, something he wasn't normally known for. As the game progressed, it seemed more and more apparent to Charles Barkley that something was up.
As he said at the time, even though he and many other players understood the feeling Bryant was likely experiencing, it was "bulls**t" on Bryant's part. He went on a rant about the game after the fact, explaining that Bryant only shot the ball once in the second half to prove a point. Following the game, the Black Mamba was made aware of Barkley's comments and quickly pulled out his phone.
Barkley recalled the situation during a sit-down interview with Taylor Rooks recently:
"I went off on him after the game, I said, 'Hey, listen we all big Kobe Bryant fans, but what he did tonight was just total bulls**t.' He wouldn't shoot the ball, he was trying to prove – I think he shot one time in the second half, and it was brutal. He was just trying to prove a point: He didn't have any help.
"He starts texting me after the game, calling me every freaking name in the book. And this goes on for about three hours, it's like 4 or 5 o'clock in the morning. We work 'til like 1:30, 2, and I said, 'Yo, man, pick up the freaking phone and talk to me!' but he was calling me every name in the book."
The fallout from Charles Barkley's comments
As Charles Barkley explained, he and Bryant going back and forth was one of the funniest nights of his life. After filming "Inside the NBA," Barkley returned to his hotel at 2:30 in the morning and continued to exchange texts with Bryant. Later on, he and Bryant wound up seeing each other the following season and hashing things out.
According to Barkley, that's one of the reasons he always respected Bryant: his ability to admit when he was wrong and others were right. Over the years, he continued to respect Bryant's game as he proved himself, winning with and without Shaquille O'Neal.
You can catch Barkley and O'Neal on "Inside the NBA" every Tuesday. On Tuesday, the crew will host a doubleheader with the opening game between the LA Lakers and Cleveland Cavaliers kicking things off. After that the Dallas Mavericks will face the Denver Nuggets on the TNT broadcast.