After Kobe Bryant tore his Achilles in 2013, the Los Angeles Lakers began to think about their future, drafting promising young prospects like Julius Randle, Jordan Clarkson, D’Angelo Russell, Larry Nance Jr., Brandon Ingram, Ivica Zubac, Lonzo Ball, Kyle Kuzma and Josh Hart in the coming years.
None of those players are still with the Lakers except Russell, who was traded away before ultimately returning, but most are thriving in their respective careers across the league. Getting the chance to be teammates with Bryant likely played a role in that, especially for Nance.
Nance has carved out a nice role for himself with the New Orleans Pelicans. He is a solid role player that does all the little things and despite dealing with some injuries, has always had the athleticism to jump out of the gym and dunk on people.
Laker fans are well-aware of Nance’s leaping ability after seeing some of his dunks while with the team. Bryant took notice of it from the beginning too, as Nance recently recalled a story of Kobe telling him to dunk everything, which gave him confidence, via Run It Back on FanDuel TV:
“That was the first thing he told me. It was funny, we were playing the Hawks and I’m an athletic dude, I came in athletic. I knew I was athletic, but it’s the NBA, guys are bigger, faster, strong and more athletic. So I tried to like finish around Al Horford one time and missed. Tried to finish around Paul Mills one time and missed. We came to the timeout and he just grabbed my jersey and was like ‘Hey! Hey, MF! I’ve seen you in practice. Dunk everything! I don’t care who’s there, they can’t touch you. Dunk everything!’
“So it’s funny, one of the very next possessions, I caught it in the post, ripped middle and just boom! Right on top of them both. And that just spurred my career forward. It was a really cool moment because like, I don’t know why I needed to be told that you could do the same thing you did in college here. But I don’t know, him having belief in me was all I needed to just really go do it.”
Even though the Lakers didn’t win many games due the era in which Bryant played with all the young guys, it’s clear that playing with a legend was a very valuable experience for all of them.
Especially now that Kobe is no longer with us, guys like Nance can look back on those memories fondly and appreciate the time they were able to share on the Lakers with Bryant.
Rick Fox shares love to Kobe Bryant & Shaquille O’Neal
Bryant didn’t just make an impact on his younger teammates as his older teammates like Rick Fox also feel similarly about him. Fox recently spoke on his time with the Lakers and shared love for both Kobe and Shaquille O’Neal, who he won three championships alongside.
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