Denying an interview because the interviewer was all wrapped up in Adidas is the extent to which Kobe Bryant hated the German corporation. Now imagine his own teammate coming up to him with the same $43.3 billion worth brand’s sneakers. Notably, the Black Mamba was known to give it to his teammates straight. But it turns out, things could be worse when he dealt with teammates and Adidas together.

Appearing on an episode of VLAD TV, former NBA star Nick Young shared an instance when he went to Kobe Bryant to get his Adidas sneakers signed. “I had some Adidas. And I went in to get him. I wanted him to sign them on his last day. But he threw my shoes in the trash, threw my Adidas… said, ‘I don’t f*ck with Adidas. I don’t wear them sh*ts,” Young said.

There would be some who would walk away since it was Kobe, but Young recollected asking the 5x NBA champ what was wrong with him. Turned out it was not Swaggy P but just the Adidas brand. “He said, ‘Go get some Nikes’… He said, ‘Man, if you ain’t got no Nikes, I ain’t signing nothing for you, Nick’… So I went and got these Nikes and then he wrote to my main man, swag and all that on him. But I could see that a**hole stuff,” recalled the 2018 NBA champ.

This came after a discussion on Smush Parker mentioning one of his interactions with the Black Mamba. The instance when the former Lakers guard tried to initiate small talk with Kobe but was completely shut down. “You can’t talk to me. You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me,” were Kobe’s words for Parker. This is when Nick Young stated he had a somewhat milder version of this interaction because of his Adidas. But why did Kobe hate Adidas so much?

Kobe Bryant denied an interview because the interviewer was donning Adidas

After Nike’s success with Michael Jordan, Adidas was looking for a tie-up with the next potential superstar. This player for the brand came as the Black Mamba, as the sports apparel company signed a deal with him in his rookie year. But this partnership only lasted for six years as after a point the Los Angeles Lakers guard was so frustrated with Adidas that he paid $8 million from his own pocket to end the contract. As per the reports, the reason for frustration was the company’s terrible designs and Kobe not getting any say in the design of his own sneakers. 

The anger on Adidas was such that there was an instance when NBA Writer Marc J. Spears wanted to interview Bryant. Spears recalled the incident in an interview with Kris Johnson. “I’m at practice and I go to interview Bean. I said ‘Kobe you got a couple of minutes before you leave?’ And he said, ‘No, not for you today.’ I’m like ‘What are you talking about?'” Spears recalled. He further mentioned that Kobe subtly explained to him he was wearing Adidas. And that’s when it hit the NBA writer that the Black Mamba had a bad split with the company. 

However, after further requests, Kobe Bryant agreed to the interview, but there was a hilarious condition involved. “He’s like… ‘I’m (going to) give you the interview, but when you go home, you’re going to throw all that (Adidas) away. And you’re going to take a video of you throwing it away,'” Spears told Johnson. The NBA writer to this date believes that accepting the condition was worth it.