According to former NBA guard Baron Davis, Kobe Bryant said he wasn’t worried about Jeremy Lin ahead of a matchup between the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks during the height of Linsanity — only for Bryant to end up unhappy after the former Harvard University star torched him and the Lakers.
Davis and Lin were teammates on the Knicks at the time.
“Kobe came in town,” Davis said when reminiscing on Linsanity. ‘”Aye Kobe, don’t let this dude bust yo a–. He hot. You know what I mean? He hot. Don’t let him get you, bro.’ Kob like, ‘Come on, B.D. — not worried about none of that.’ I’m like, ‘Ayo, he is going to kill you guys tomorrow. And I’m telling you this now, bro, just so when I come in here after the game, right, you not mad at me.’
“So me and him at dinner, and this is all I’m talkin’ about. No matter what Kobe is talkin’ about, all I keep comin’ back to, like, ‘Hey, dawg, he’s going to bust y’all a– tomorrow, and I’m going to show up in your locker room, and I’m gonna be laughin’. Lakers come in town. Hey, dude, he served the Lakers, and after the game, I went right down there, and he was tight. Hey, dude, Kobe was so tight. He was so tight. He was hot.”
The game in question between Lin’s Knicks and Bryant’s Lakers took place back on Feb. 10 of 2012, now more than a decade ago.
Bryant and Lin stood out as the top performers for their respective teams in that contest. Starting off with the five-time NBA champion, Bryant dropped 34 points on 11-of-29 shooting from the floor and 11-of-13 shooting from the charity stripe while also contributing 10 rebounds, one assist and one steal.
But for as hard as Bryant played for the Lakers, his performance was dampened by a career-defining game from Lin. The now 35-year-old led all scorers with 38 points, and he scored the ball with great efficiency, considering he shot 13-of-23 from the floor, 2-of-4 from 3-point range and 10-of-13 from the free-throw line.
Lin’s outing against the Lakers marked a career-high in points for him. He later tied that career-high with 38 points against the San Antonio Spurs when he was a member of the Houston Rockets.
Lin did more than just score the ball at a high level against Bryant and company, though. He also dished out a team-high seven assists and pulled down four rebounds in a game the Knicks won by a final score of 92-85 to improve their record to 12-15 on the season.
Interestingly, Lin and Bryant went on to become teammates on the Lakers for a brief period. Lin appeared in 74 games with Los Angeles in the 2014-15 regular season and averaged 11.2 points, 2.6 rebounds, 4.6 assists and 1.1 steals per contest.
Bryant was in the twilight of his career by that time, as he retired from the NBA following the 2015-16 campaign. Lin, on the other hand, hasn’t played for an NBA team since the 2018-19 season, when he won a ring with the Toronto Raptors.
