“I Fell to My Knees”: Kobe Bryant Beef Forgotten, Ex-Teammate Struggled to Deal With Devastating Revelation

Kobe Bryant‘s unfortunate death in 2020 even had his haters feeling saddened about it. The Black Mamba had an impact on people, which was beyond basketball. For most, it was a positive impact, but for a few, it was the other way around. It was either due to a rivalry, or a beef, which a few had with Bryant. For Smush Parker, though, it was beyond that. Bryant disrespected the former Los Angeles Lakers point guard publicly by calling him the “worst”. However, when the 5x champion passed away, the reality was too harsh that Parker forgot the beef. 

Parker joined Vlad TV for an interview where he spoke about the moment he got to know about Bryant’s death. The 42-year-old shared, “I was like, ‘Come on, stop lying’. Then somebody else walked up to me, showed me the same thing and you know it was something I thought that would never happen, because of our history, like I literally fell to my knees, like I couldn’t stand. I got weak in the knees”

Parker added, “A grown man had to pick me up and walk me to the back because I couldn’t walk…It really just took everything out of me…Me saying it now, somebody would be like you’re lying but honestly, it affected me,” This is how disappointing the loss of Bryant was for Parker. 

This comes as a surprising revelation considering the relationship the two had during their time in LA. Bryant had some pretty harsh words to say in 2006 when he was talking about the Lakers who were in a rebuild. He took a jab at his team and one name that got damaged the most was Smush Parker. 

Kobe Bryant shared that Parker should have never been in the NBA 

Well, you already know how ugly it is with the above line. Bryant, in a comparison with Steve Nash, shared, “I tell Steve, you won MVP but I was playing with Smush Parker… He’s playing with [Leandro] Barbosa. I’m playing with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness.” 2006 and 2007 was a pretty hard time for Bryant, who was a solo warrior at the Lakers. 

Read more: Kobe Bryant’s Former Teammate Has Bitter Memories of Iconic 81 Point Game: “I Can’t Stomach Watching…”

It was right before Pau Gasol and a few other stars joined the team. Bryant did not stop there. He added, “Smush Parker was the worst…He shouldn’t have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.”

These strong words indeed hurt Parker. However, he has gotten over it ever since Bryant’s passing. What are your thoughts on Parker’s comments? Let us know in the comments below. 

Read more: Kobe Bryant’s Former Teammate Felt Disrespected as Victim of Infamous Incident