Smush Parker Reflects On Lack Of Relationship With Kobe Bryant During Los Angeles Lakers Tenure
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The late Kobe Bryant is best known for his stone-cold and competitive approach to basketball, which yielded him much success in his 20-year NBA career. William “Smush” Parker recently revealed that the Black Mamba made no effort to form a relationship with him due to his lack of accolades while he was part of the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 42-year-old former hooper appeared on Pablo Torre Finds Out on Wednesday (Dec. 20) and opened up about his time playing alongside the five-time NBA Champion. “The man never spoke to me,” he said. “I wasn’t the 12th man on the bench. I wasn’t the call-up from the G League who was just filling a roster spot. I started with this man. I was his co-worker. Like we shared a cubicle side-by-side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold a conversation?”
There was one instance where Smush tried to have a conversation with Bryant about football but was immediately shot down. “He looked at me, honestly, looked at me and said, ‘You can’t talk to me, you need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me,'” Parker recalled. “He was dead serious… So that set the tone. Never spoke to him again, or tried to, for two years—as the starting point guard.”
Smush Parker and Kobe Bryant’s non-relationship grew into serious tension over time. Parker had gone on record saying that he would intentionally ignore Kobe and not pass him the ball, in addition to having issues with other players on the Los Angeles Lakers roster and their coaches. In a 2007 interview, Smush said that playing with the 18-time All-Star was an “overrated experience.”
Five years later, Bryant fired back in a Los Angeles Times interview. “I tell Steve [Nash], you won MVP but I was playing with Smush Parker… He’s playing with [Leandro] Barbosa. I’m playing with Smush and Kwame [Brown]. My goodness…” Bryant said at the time. “Smush Parker was the worst… He shouldn’t have been in the NBA, but we were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.”
Smush Parker played for the Lakers from 2005-2007, a small fraction of Kobe Bryant’s 20-year run with the team. While Parker went on to play for the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Clippers before exiting the NBA in 2008, Bryant would help bring the Lakers two more championships in 2009 and 2010.
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