“For a While, He Wasn’t the Best Teammate”: Former Los Angeles Lakers Coach Reveals an Unknown Side of Kobe Bryant

After entering the NBA straight from high school, Kobe Bryant started off as a bench player. In his first two seasons, he started a total of seven games. Because of this, he disliked his then coach Del Harris. But later he admitted how Harris helped him to “to earn everything (he) got.”

A few days ago, Harris spoke to Eros Villanueva from ESPN, as they talked about Kobe’s earlier years with the Lakers. Harris talked about how Kobe couldn’t directly enter the team. Then as they talked about his death, Harris said, “For a while, he wasn’t the best teammate because he was, you know, in it to be the best. And he didn’t have (the) patience for other players who couldn’t do what he could do. But he developed maturity later in his career. And he became such a man and did things for others.” 

Kobe Bryant and his relationship with Del Harris

When he came into the league, Kobe loved playing basketball. So much that before his first training camp as a rookie, he injured himself and had to miss camp. “Kobe loved to play so much that he played in a pickup game just a day before training camp is supposed to open. But he broke his hand. His rookie season, he missed training camp and didn’t get a play until the season already started.”

Not being able to play annoyed Bryant, but Harris explained it to him. “I told him, ‘There will be a day when that happens, but it’s not [now] yet.’ He didn’t like that at the time. He wanted to play all the time. But he appreciated it late.”

He spent four complete seasons at Los Angeles and his fifth one was cut short just 12 games into the season. After finishing without a title in four seasons, and starting his fifth with a 6-6 record, he was fired by the Lakers. That turned out to be Kobe’s first season as a starter. They lost in the playoffs to the Spurs, but next season they went to win the title. That was the start of their three-peat. With that, Kobe introduced himself as an upcoming superstar.