It is well known that Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol are great friends now stretching back from their time together as Los Angeles Lakers teammates from 2008-2013. Bryant’s reputation as a tough teammate is well deserved and he gave another example of that.
In an interview with Andrea Kremer for HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, Bryant recalled the story of hanging up his gold medal in Gasol’s locker on the first day of training camp before the 2008-09 season.
Kobe wanted to remind Gasol that he had been a runner-up twice in the previous year after losing in both the Finals and the Gold Medal game of the Olympics. As Bryant noted, they would win back-to-back championships after, so it apparently worked.
This is just another example of Kobe pushing his teammates to get the best out of them. He wanted to motivate Pau the best way he knew how and it ultimately worked.
