“Young Teenager Trying to Find My Way”: 7x NBA All-Star Remembers Paris Trip With Kobe Bryant, Divulging Into a 19 Year Old Star’s Building Confidence

Many in the league have a Kobe Bryant story to tell. Before Kobe became a superstar, the youngster in him would go to players like Michael Jordan for guidance. Later on, Bryant took on the role of sensei and inspired many of his peers and successors. Icons of the game like LeBron James and Dwyane Wade have candidly expressed how they got many takeaways from Bryant while playing with him in the ‘Redeem Team.’ Yet another NBA legend has now opened up about his experience of playing with the Black Mamba

The Lakers icon’s work ethic was so intense that he worked on his game during a vacation to Paris. Bryant, however, was not alone on the vacation. One of his peers had joined him on the outing and the two even faced off during the vacation.

NBA legend recalls a Paris trip with Kobe Bryant and opens up about adjusting to the league

The 7x-NBA All-Star Tracy McGrady had a free-wheeling conversation with Celtics legend Kevin Garnett on the recent episode of the KG Certified podcast. Garnett pointed out that T-Mac was one of the hardest players to guard. Then, Garnett asked how McGrady enhanced his iconic one-on-one skill set. While responding to the host, the 7x-NBA All-Star recalled how Kobe Bryant helped him improve his game.

“Me and Kobe took a trip to Paris. And we were over there, we took our trainers with us. On that trip, all we worked on was our individual skills. He told me, he was like, ‘bro I have never played pickup. It was like because how many reps you are gonna get playing pickup basketball.’ And he was like ‘I do a lot of skill training.’ So we did a lot of skill training. I picked up a lot of things and from that trip that’s what I had added to my training in the off-season,” said McGrady.

After reminiscing about this 1998 trip with the Los Angeles Lakers legend, Tracy McGrady went on to shed light on his initial phase in Toronto when he was a 19-year-old. “We had a bunch of veterans on that team. I was still a teenager trying to find my way. You know I was kind of sheltered and brought on slowly,” T-Mac added. Years after their trip to Paris, when T-Mac was playing in China, word got out that Kobe once defeated the former 11-2 in a one-on-one matchup during a Paris trip.

There was more to Tracy McGrady’s Paris trip with Bryant

When T-Mac heard the news, he was surprised. He called the Mamba and told him they never played one-on-one. Rather, they were working on their skills and they were guarding each other. It was only during this call with Kobe that McGrady realized Kobe had kept count all the way through the training session.

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Kevin Garnett too was surprised to hear the story and said that Bryant was playing one-on-one and T-Mac was training. KG and T-Mac later agreed that it was one of the many mind games that the Mamba played with those who crossed his path.

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