On April 11, Mathew Knowles, Beyonce’s father, posted a 23-second video clip to his Twitter page that gave us a brief look at a game of 1-on-1 he played against a young Kobe Bryant on the set of the video for Destiny Child’s “Bug a Boo.” The clip, which has since gone viral, is edited together to show Bryant missing a jumper, followed by Knowles hitting the Black Mamba with a jab step before driving left and hitting lay-up, with some lackadaisical defense played by Bryant.
https://twitter.com/MathewKnowles/status/1116423984571138048
In a chat with Fox Sports, Bryant shared his memories of the game that happened 20 years ago (“Bug a Boo” dropped in 1999), just ahead of Bryant’s fourth season in the NBA.
“I don’t think he made another basket after that.”@kobebryant tells the story behind his one-on-one game with Beyoncé's dad, @MathewKnowles. pic.twitter.com/apgypNPyzX
— FOX Sports (@FOXSports) April 19, 2019
“Mathew was talking about how he plays ball and all this, that and the other,” Bryant said. “And there’s a lot of downtime, and you know I got a lot of energy. And I’m like ‘Well let’s just hoop!'”
Though Knowles’ clip shows him scoring a bucket, Bryant says that’s the only points Beyonce’s dad scored the entire game.
“I don’t remember him scoring another basket after that,” Bryant said. “I had to be nice a little bit. It is his video set, so, I decided to let him get a little lay-up in.”
Bryant would lead the Los Angeles Lakers to their first NBA Finals appearance since 1991 that following season, winning the first of three straight championships. At least Mr. Knowles can say he dropped a bucket on an NBA champion.
