[Music] so the first game i played against gold the very first time i played against the first time ever like actually playing against him you remember like damn like you know i'm i'm on a court with kobe like i was just in awe yeah i'm not sure if i could even uh do it any justice

really it's a guy who i would tape on my wall when i lived in spring hill in apartment 602. to be able to share the floor with him was um was like a you know for any kid that has aspirations or or has uh inspiring moments from someone it's just like a sense of awe i remember most just watching somebody that i literally grew up watching on youtube [Applause] and i remember just watching them you know just like i'm really about to line up against kobe i remember lining up the jump ball

against andrew biden and looking over and seeing you know kobe that's when it was surreal for me that's when i realized that was really a part of the nba i think the thing the thing that stood out most to me about playing kobe that first time was his pre-game warm-up why is he working out at four o'clock and it's a 7 30 game by the time i finished watching his workout i had like missed my life my treatment time you know as a young guy you you get the early slice and once you miss it it's over i have missed

everything and i think for me personally that was just a moment like in my life where i was like yo like i'm sitting here watching kobe nothing else really mattered to me at that point what were you trying to do out on the court that night um for me not to get you know 50 dropped on me my rookie year we played against them in the playoffs and i was just trying my best i was just talking smack i was just in his ear he wasn't he wasn't fazed by it at the forum my rookie year we played against him and

uh i got switched on to him in an iso situation i'm you know scrawny 170 pound rookie coming in and the look he gave me was so damn disrespectful it was crazy he hissed like an actual snake you know whenever he wanted the ball he would like he would make a hissing sound and it threw me all the way off like i didn't know that that was a thing he was just testing me like he was just testing to see what i was made of he was tested to see what type of mentality i had um and he was just testing me to see you

know who i was as a as a person and what i stood for i guess i wanted to gain his respect so much at that moment and he was just stone-faced straight killer mode the whole game it's down to seven starting to make his move for the win he got the lead for him i remember we got our ass kicked i remember that you know i think i'm a pretty you know physical defender and all that stuff and i'm young pup and i could tell you he beat the limit of me without even having the ball

i always said a story girl i got a switch on kobe um he was posting me up i blocked his shot and the ball bounced to half court and i went running out there full speed it was a big moment for me because i could brag to my friends and i blocked coca bronze shot this guy's a blur kobe d3 got it he got the ball back and shot at three he said the play continues young fella he says that john wall get this one the very first time um was actually here in l.a it was my assignment uh to guard kobe i'm obviously having b shaw as an assistant

and b shaw's like john adam um egging them on getting them riled up talking mess from the bench here i am in the middle uh while all of this is going on i was guarding him and he uh you know he got into his back down um his patent uh pump fake and i went flying for it you know young guy trying to go block his shot i went flying for it and uh he caught me in the air he ran down uh specifically ran down to where b shaw

was and uh yelled at b shaw checked the young feather for feathers the first time that i played against him was when i was in chicago and he was with the lakers and i just remember him asking michael jordan all these questions on the court the whole time but i think what ultimately made him who he was was that that audacity to ask michael jordan for pointers in his very first game against him think about most 18 year olds they'd be scared to death to to go against michael uh and he was just inquisitive it's

pretty remarkable it was just our generation uh jordan in terms of like iconic moves iso stuff fadeaways game winners i try to emulate how he moved down to what he said to you guys in the media to how he worked out before the games what he watched i would really try to study it as much as possible i would never told him that but as a as a younger player i was really just copying everything he did um he's my idol growing up and it was just a blessing to to be

on the same court as him and compete it was it was it was me and him nobody on that court mattered nothing else mattered it was everything for me you know it was everything for me it was the best moment of my life