Sebastian Telfair’s career went parallel with Kobe Bryant‘s prime. With their on-court rivalry and off-court friendship comes many stories. While on VladTV, Telfair had the privilege to boast that he has known Bryant since he was a teen, before his NBA career began. He has many instances of clashing with the Mamba Mentality. In one instance it actually helped him through a hard time. Telfair was injured during one of his stints with the Minnesota Timberwolves that time. He would run into Bryant before games but this instance went differently.

“I seen Kobe, you know, before the games working out. Kobe came over to me. We was lifting weights. We both was injured at the time. I was playing for Minnesota, he was playing for the Lakers.” Injuries didn’t stop the Black Mamba and he shared some of that energy with his friend too. As Telfair recalled, “And Kobe came over to me, he was like, ‘Yo, be great, be great.’ Like, that always stuck out, you know what I’m saying.”

Bryant is seven years older than Telfair, a fact that skipped the younger NBA star who thinks their age gap is 10 years. Before he was selected by the Portland Trail Blazers in 2004, Telfair was friends with Bryant before he too began his NBA career in 1996. “I knew Kobe since I was like 13…” he said while boasting he has photographic evidence of it we’re hoping he’ll share in the near future.

Despite knowing Bryant so well, Telfair didn’t understand Bryant’s trash-talking tendencies. On one instance, he got into a war of words with Telfair too.

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Kobe Bryant’s off-court clash with old friend

Unlike the motivational moment, there was another incident before a game when Bryant approached Telfair for some mind games with a sprinkle of flexing. “Kobe was like ‘Man, you know how I know y’all can’t guard me? When they come hit my hand, I know y’all got here on a bus,'” Telfair recalled.

He then added Bryant’s meanest punchline. “He said ‘I got here on a helicopter. I just got off a helicopter and you got off a bus, it’s a bucket.’ And I’m just sitting there stuck.”

Telfair could only nurse the burns after Kobe Bryant’s trash talk. But isn’t this how the best friendships work? What do you think about this underrated friendship?

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