Shane Battier: So I by no means spoke to Kobe exterior the gymnasium ever, we by no means had a relationship. You recognize Kobe… he would at all times play thoughts video games with me. Sooner or later he’d be tremendous pleasant like ‘Hey Shane! How are you doing man? How’s your loved ones?’ And the subsequent day he wouldn’t even have a look at you, after which the subsequent day he would go ‘Hey man, good to see you!’ So it was this sport inside the sport inside the sport. And I used to be identical to… bear in mind Eeyore from Winnie the Pooh? I used to be identical to Eeyore, ‘I can’t guard Kobe, he’s so a lot better than me, I’m simply fortunate to be on the court docket with him…’ He really wrote about me in Mamba Mentality e-book, improbable e-book, clearly and the web page was on Kobe Stoppers, and he’s like ‘I don’t imagine anyone might cease me, my muscle reminiscence was higher than anyone, he’s speaking in regards to the hand within the face with Kobe’ however he mentioned ‘Shane did one thing very good the place he by no means mentioned he might guard me, and at all times downplayed his skill to play me, however I noticed that as false humility and I attacked him due to it’… And he was proper!!! He was proper!!! He knew! That was the sport we performed, it was the sport inside the sport inside the sport, solely he and I knew we had been taking part in, it was this metagame, so f*cking loopy, that solely he and I knew on the highest stage of competitors. So when he handed it actually, actually affected me as a result of I at all times thought I’d have this dialog with him at some point, and we are going to at some point in up above. For me, that was the purest stage of competitors that I confronted in all my years of basketball and I miss him. -via YouTube / Could 26, 2024
