Kobe Bryant is probably a great person to turn to for a number of things. For example, if you want advice on how to score a ton of points, or if you want to look to someone for guidance on how to get on a track with Brian McKnight, Kobe’s a good source of information.
For Kyrie Irving, Kobe was a good person to turn to when he wanted to know the best way to co-exist with a superstar teammate who is seven years older than him. In a new story by ESPN’s Dave McMenamin, Irving revealed that he didn’t want his relationship with LeBron James to be analogous to the infamous relationship that Kobe had with Shaquille O’Neal.
So Irving did what anyone would do – he turned Kobe into one of his mentors.
Irving counts Bryant as a mentor and has talked to him about O’Neal in order to avoid the same mistakes with James.
“It’s a tough balance,” Irving told ESPN. “Because everyone knows, Shaq was really dominant and [had] a lot of the individual accolades … unbelievable. And that’s who he was. And Kobe was just consistently working on his game and consistently trying to prove everyone all the time. And you got to commend somebody for that. That just shows the true testament of their will and what they’re willing to do and what they’re willing to sacrifice, but I know I don’t want to look back and say that I let my selfishness get in the way of us winning championships, because we have unbelievable talent on this team and unbelievable players, and so I don’t want to ever take that for granted.
“Whenever that time comes and it’s my time to be the leader of the franchise, then I’ll be well-prepared. But for now, I’m cool with just being — I’m very, very cool with being — a great guy on a great team.”
Sure, it’s a bit silly, but Kobe is just about the perfect person to ask about this. This is not only because of the beef he had with Shaq, but because the pair has since reconciled and Kobe has even praised the impact Shaq had on his career. It’s also not the first time Irving has looked to someone else for a way to better his relationship with LeBron – earlier this year, it was reported that he had studied Dwyane Wade with the hopes of learning the best ways to set up the reigning Finals MVP.
Anyway, Irving and LeBron seem to have a pretty good relationship. Sure, there were reports at one point in their partnership that they weren’t in a great spot, but since then the Cavaliers have won a ring and Irving has gone through the Kobe System. Now, Cleveland can focus on the Finals and not worry about any type of beef popping up.
(Via ESPN)
