Candace Parker recently was helping Vanessa and Kobe Bryant‘s third youngest daughter with hooping. Bianka Bella is just 7 years old, but she had thoroughly impressed the former WNBA champion. Speaking about being impressive at a young age, Parker was crowned the Rookie of the Year and MVP in the year 2008. It was also the season when she made her Olympics debut and recently shared what it was like experiencing it so early in her career as she shed light on Kobe’s betting habits.

“I wish I would have appreciated it more,” said the 3x WNBA champion, who joined Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe’s podcast. She further stated how she was not able to make the most of it as she was playing constantly. First, she had her NCAA run with Tennessee, where she won the championship in April. Later, she was drafted as the overall #1 pick in the WNBA draft. The W season started in May and she played until the Olympic break.

The quadrennial affair started in August when she created her best memories from the Beijing Olympics. Discussing the same, she mentioned the Athlete lounge where she was able to interact with other stars, naming Dwyane Wade and Kobe Bryant. “Able to talk to D Wade and like playing cards. Because you got to see people in their element, and why people are the way they are. Like, Kobe just coming in and betting it all on everything. Like, it was such a Kobe thing to do,” Parker said, via the A Touch More podcast.

Three years ago, Parker revealed a story where Kobe Bryant took all the money from Jason Kidd in a game Booray. But it wasn’t Kidd who lost it, it was another WNBA legend, Diana Taurasi. Kobe would stir the pot and continuously taunt Taurasi who was sitting in as a substitute to take care of Kidd’s money. Eventually, mind games paid off as the Lakers legend ended up on the winning side.

Although the Los Angeles Lakers legend made the aforementioned bet off the court with these hoopers, there was one instance when Kobe Bryant did bet while on the court.

$500K betting incident of Kobe Bryant

The Los Angeles Lakers were taking on the Nets, and the game was close, with the Lakers leading by 2 points. Bryant was about to take a free throw when Gerald Wallace had an idea of playing mind games with Kobe Bryant. He tried to break Kobe’s concentration, but Black Mamba was having none of it.

“I bet I make this b***h. How much you wanna put on it? I’ll put $500K on it right here.” Yes, Kobe bet $500K that he would make a free throw. There was no hiccup as he scored easily. In that game, he scored 25 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists and the Lakers eventually won the close game of 95-90 in 2012.

It was wise of Wallace to not take it up officially, as he would have lost the bet. We all saw how effortlessly Bryant had scored. Throughout the incident, Kobe was seen laughing and, some may say he was amused that he was challenged.

“Stay tuned for more such updates and join us for the exciting second episode of the “Dual Threat Show” as our host BG12 sits down with Georgia Bulldogs star and Mountain West All-Freshman Team Selection, Asia Avinger.