It was the video seen around the world a few years ago, as a young Kyrie Irving, fresh off of being the No. 1 pick, challenged Kobe Bryant to a one-on-one battle for $50K during a Team USA training camp in Las Vegas.
Kobe laughed it off, but Irving still ponders that dream matchup, while thanking Kobe for all he’s done.
“During the Chicago series he was the first person I called when I had my knee issues,” Irving admitted Thursday afternoon when asked about his relationship with the Lakers star. “I asked him a few things.
He knew a little bit about (Tom) Thibodeau’s defense and how they are going to corral me and what they are going to do knowing I’m hurt and he just told me how to be more effective in the scoring areas as well as on the defensive end. […] We talked for about 30 minutes and he gave me as great a talk as I needed at that time.
I was in a terrible mental space knowing I couldn’t be as effective as I wanted to be. He was the first person I called and we’ve had a great dialogue over the last few years so it’s been great.”
Irving made it clear as well, that the $50k wager is still on the table.
I think I would do it now though,” he said with a smile. “He would still go at me and it would be good.”
That’s still easy money for Bryant.