Bryant leaves practice with expletive-ridden rant…
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Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant was clearly far from impressed after joining his teammates for a scrimmage during practice on Thursday.
Bryant returned to practice for the first time this month on Thursday and labelled his teammates as “soft” during a heated 5-on-5 scrimmage between the starters and reserves.
With practice open to the media, it began with Bryant and Nick Young swapping verbals as they squared off. Young started off by insisting that: “Nobody in the world can guard me one-on-one,” and Bryant telling Young, “You’re going exactly where I want you to go.”
Lakers coach Byron Scott has held Bryant out of practice for most of the season as he continues to rest up between games, but it is clear that his competitive spirit hasn’t gone anywhere as he also directed some of his attention to point guard Jeremy Lin.
“No, I was just being myself,” Bryant said. “I don’t know if it helps them, but it obviously raises the intensity level. It was a tough practice for them … It’s really good for Nick, aside from the fun of bantering back and forth and the trash talk, just fundamentally some of the techniques and things that I use. He gets a chance to really see up close those little tricks.”
Bryant insisted that he wasn’t overly frustrated with the team but he wanted to toughen up the players and ensure that they give as good as they get during games and he hopes that they can carry that with them through the next few games.
However, he didn’t sound too impressed when he left the practice court…
Kobe snapped at practice today and @ArashMarkazi did the world a favor by taking a Vine: http://t.co/BcdMkfcWTf https://t.co/jkCSxWzVAY
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) December 11, 2014
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