King P

Caron Butler says Kobe once erased the play a coach drew up while asking the huddle who wanted to be a part of history and to give him the ball and meet him in the tunnel to celebrate after he hits the game winner, and says in the middle of losing games by double digits Kobe would be thinking about how he would use that loss as fuel to win a championship “Man, it’s crazy because I have two. One I never told, and one I kind of touch on often. The time we were in Charlotte, I forget the coach, I don’t know if it was Rudy T or Frank Hamblen. They were drawing up a play, because Rudy T left halfway through the season, so it might have been Frank Hamblen.” “But whoever our coach was at the time, he was drawing up the play, and Kobe just kind of wiped the board real quick. He was like, ‘Hey, who wants to be part of history?’ And everybody was like, Lamar was like, ‘I want to be part of history.’ He’s like, ‘You take the ball out, I’m going to get open right here, throw it to me, everybody run out the damn tunnel.’” “And that’s just a true story, dog, like real time. Nobody knew where to go on the court. He was like, ‘He’s going to catch it somewhere right here, just get out of the way, run.’ And that’s what happened in real time.” “He was like, ‘Whoever wants to be part of history, throw me the ball. I’m going to be right here.’ But I think after everything, all the adversity that we were going through, the Shaq trade and all that, I never forget we were in Denver. This story I never told.” “He was just sitting there on the bench, and he just started closing his eyes and putting his hands up. I’m like, ‘Damn, what is he doing?’ Melvin Hunt, who was the assistant coach at the time, was there. And he just stood up, and I was processing all that because they were booing him and everything.” “He was like, ‘I’m going to win another three, four titles, and I want to win a championship in this building, in this arena.’ I was just like, damn, him being wired like that in that moment. We were getting our ass kicked by probably about 25, 30 points. He was just tapping in, and I’m trying to get through the game.” “I’m like, ‘I got 11 points, I’m trying to score 13.’ And he’s thinking about how good it’s going to be. I see chips, and I got to remember this. I got to add this on as my motivation during my process.” “It was just crazy how he was wired like that. And I never forget, he always told me, and this is what we would always have dialogue about, your second act, what’s next? Even when you’re in the process of what you’re doing, what’s next? Don’t celebrate that, all right, good, congratulations on your new deal, whatever, but what’s next?”