Mamba insists it was just a social meeting talking hoops…
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Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant insisted that his meeting with Boston Celtics point guard Rajon Rondo had nothing to do with recruiting him.
The pair met for breakfast on Friday morning ahead of the Lakers’ game against the Celtics on Friday night, with Bryant scoring 22 points in the 113-96 loss.
Rondo had 12 points and 16 assists in the game, but Bryant insists that their meeting was purely to talk about the game and catch up.
“No, we get along extremely well,” Bryant said.
“We see the game in a similar fashion in terms of our aggressiveness and mindset. It was good to get together with him.”
According to reports, there are no active talks on-going between the two franchises over a trade deal involving Rondo, with the 28-year-old set to become a free agent next summer.
While the Celtics are understood to be keen on re-signing him to a new deal, the Lakers have previously enquired about his status and are expected to continue to monitor his situation.
“We just talked about the game, we talked about the league. We talked about good old memories of playing in the series against each other, stuff like that — different strategies and things they tried to do against us and things we tried to do against them,” Bryant added.
“It was a basketball geek conversation.”
Bryant has previously spoken very fondly of the Celtics star and has praised his spirit and determination to win. It is reported that if the Celtics are open to negotiations, then they would be looking for at least one first-round Draft pick in return for Rondo.
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