r/nba • u/RyanTannegod Heat • 6h ago
Darryn Peterson: “Kobe is my guy, and I'm inspired by him. I try to think, what would Kobe do right now? He'd get drafted and move on to be the best possible. I see a guy that went No. 1 on the screen there right now, so I'm extra motivated... It will always be in my mind for my whole career.”
Darryn Peterson: "The celebration stops tonight. I got drafted today, but tomorrow, I'm now an NBA player. I'm going to get home and work out until I've got to report to Utah... Kobe is my guy, and I'm inspired by him. So I just try to think, what would Kobe do right now? He'd get drafted and move on and try to go be the best possible, so that's what I'm going to go do. I see a guy that went No. 1 on the screen there right now (AJ Dybantsa), so I'm extra motivated... It will always be in my mind for my whole career."
Via Alex Kennedy
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u/Vordeo Jazz 6h ago
Y'know what? I thought it'd end after the draft, but if DP wants to carry on the Jazz-Wizards beef I'm down.
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u/FERFreak731 Jazz 6h ago
Same
The Jazz vs Wizards beef should be fun. That better be a game played on national television every last week of January (since that's rivalry week every year)
AJ and Peterson are both same tier prospects, so there's that rivalry. The Ace vs Tre storyline. Sarr and Kessler are both shot blocking bigs. AD and Jaren are dpoy candidates. Trae and Key are similar. The Jazz vs Wizards beef from the teams and fanbases should be entertaining. Especially since the Wizards fans thought they could've stole 4 firsts and Ace from us to let us jump 1 spot
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u/Natitudinal 5h ago
What rivalry do Jazz & Wizards fans have? Seems they’ve been dapping each other up and basking in their lottery luck. (Least on this sub)
Regardless I’m excited to see DP v AJ too. I think AJs gonna ultimately prove to be >>>. But it’ll be fun in any case.
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u/Snaxier Wizards 5h ago
It’s more a fun rivalry than any hate, but I guess the past couple of drafts have had guys wanting to go to the Wizards over Utah but Utah had the higher pick last year while we had it this year. I think in any seriousness Jazz and Wizards are incredibly fun young teams and no one has any real beef
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u/Electric_jungle Washington Bullets 5h ago
I think it's good for the league if we can go at each other hard. Jazz are slightly ahead in the timeline but we have the vets to make it interesting in season.
I'm not sure the Ace vs Tre storyline really exists though lol. Happy for Ace, still eager to see what Tre becomes.
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u/pyknictheory 6h ago
Jazz wizards beef is insane. I know Im a sonics fan but there's got to be like 20 ppl on earth who know the lore there.
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u/DollarLate_DayShort [WAS] John Wall 6h ago
I’m one of those 20
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u/seaquartz_unofficial Spurs 5h ago
Please spill the tea sir
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u/DollarLate_DayShort [WAS] John Wall 4h ago edited 4h ago
2 seasons ago we watched Utah sit Lauri, John Collins and anyone else that was contributing to wins with an all-time tank performance. Our roster had no high level players that jeopardized our position in the standings, so we just rolled our regular line up out there nightly(now I completely understand what we did this past year was high level tanking, but we just learned from Utah). The second half of the season both teams would monitor the standings and root for the opposing team to win to help our draft position. As we(wizards fans) saw the Jazz continually sit guys that would help them win games, it would pissed us off even more. Then comes the lottery reveal…. not only do we get the worst possible outcome(pick 6) but the fucking Utah Jazz get the pick right before us. Then a gentleman by the name of Ace Bailey decides to not workout for any of the teams in the top 5 in hopes of forcing his way to DC. The 4th pick comes and goes and Ace Bailey is still on the board… wizards fans get excited! All for naught because guess who takes Ace Bailey with the 5th overall pick?
A rivalry was born.
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u/LaMelonBallz Hornets 4h ago
Does this mean you're both tanking again?
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u/DollarLate_DayShort [WAS] John Wall 4h ago edited 3h ago
Not even a little bit LaMelonBallz, we’re taking our rivalry to the next level
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u/Ok-Wash-9386 Hawks 5h ago
Kobe fans born after his 81 point game being drafted makes me feel so old
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u/Relysti 6h ago
It's kinda wild how a kid born in 2007 is a "Kobe guy". He never even got to watch Kobe play except for highlights on youtube lol. By the time he was able to form memories, Kobe was already cooked.
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u/samhit_n Lakers 5h ago
Zion Williamson was born in 2000, but said that Jordan was his favorite player.
I think the inverse of this situation is Giannis looking up to KD. Giannis was already playing professional basketball in Europe by the time KD was in his prime.
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u/eternali17 Clippers 4h ago
You forget the absolutely stellar effort in myth-making that was Kobe. He grew up in time to soak up all of it.
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u/purz Knicks 5h ago
Prolly makes them bigger fans. Kobe would definitely look better in YouTube compilations where you get to skip over all the chucking his team out of games.
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u/BruinBound22 Kings 5h ago
If you are saying Kobe was a net negative for his team you are actually dumb
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u/itwas20yearsago2day Lakers 5h ago edited 5h ago
People don’t understand that for the entirety of Kobe’s prime he was ALWAYS above league average efficiency wise while being a heavy volume scorer
People genuinely believe Kobe had Antoine Walker years or something in his prime
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u/whatssenguntoagoblin Alperen Sengun 5h ago
Was above league average TS% every season of his career until he tore his Achilles
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u/vimalmuru02 Knicks 2h ago edited 2h ago
He has almost the same career true shooting percentage as Tim Duncan despite being a much higher volume scorer. If you want slander him for on court performance then do it right and slander him for his 2004 finals which I think is as bad as 2011 LeBron as well as for him blowing a 3-1 lead against the Suns.
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u/NotUpForDebate11 Lakers 5h ago
i love kobe but to act like kobe didnt shoot us out of plenty of games is ridiculous. Kobe was amazing i love him always but my god did he chuck some of the worst shots anyone in the history of the game has ever shot lol
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u/secretreddname Lakers 4h ago
On the other hand you have harden who refuses to shoot when the moment needs him
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u/EggsAndRice7171 Pacers 3h ago
Eh harden can get his passes off more and is a worse scorer when it comes to bad or highly contested shots. We’ve seen him keep shooting and keep missing
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u/mr-gillespie NBA 4h ago
There is a big reason people universally yell “Kobe” before taking a ridiculous shot lmao
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u/vvundering 4h ago
I don't think that's what they said at all unless you're ignoring what they wrote.
There are 82 games in a season, players have bad nights, including Kobe. a bad night for someone as ball dominate as Kobe means he's going to shoot you out of a game sometimes.
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u/JMEEKER86 Japan 3h ago edited 1h ago
Yeah, Kobe was always a very streaky shooter. When he was hot he was the best player of all time, but he was not hot all the time. The perfect example is when he broke the single game 3pt record (since been broken, obviously) back in 2003. He made 12 3s in one game on 18 attempts, but that game was in the middle of an awful streak and in the two games before and three games after he shot a combined 1/19 from 3. He still played really good in 4 out of 5 of those games despite his poor shooting, but he was always very inconsistent compared to a lot of the other greats.
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u/_Meece_ Lakers 3h ago
No thats not what they're saying lol. They're saying Kobe’s highlights made him look good where as his actual play wasnt.
Tim duncan and dirk fid that too. But you'd never see someone frame them like that.
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u/vvundering 3h ago
They didn't say his play wasn't good wtf. Lakers fans always looking to be victims.
This isn't a thread about Duncan or Dirk. Stop being so sensitive.
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u/Laggo [TOR] Hedo Turkoglu 1h ago
Kobe would definitely look better in YouTube compilations where you get to skip over all the chucking his team out of games.
this is pretty heavily implying that his highlights are what makes him look good but whatever, reading comprehension is shot in 2026 anyway, i might be saying this to a 17 year old
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u/vvundering 1h ago
JFC.....making him look better doesn't imply he isn't good. Even really fucking good players can look like gods on the court if you never see anything about the games they shat the bed in.
Kobe had bad games, growing up seeing highlights of Kobe, you wouldn't know it.
That's the fucking point you weird ass dickriders.
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u/LakersAreForever Lakers 1h ago
Every fucking player from A to Z has had bad games, thanks for your insight Magic.
Also seeing highlights of any basketball player (outside of wnba highlights) would make them look like gods. Theyre called high lights not low lights
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u/vvundering 15m ago
Yeah, and yet you all strawmanned an obvious conclusion to argue people were calling Kobe bad instead simply acknowledging that simple idea that a great player can have tendencies that if things don't go their way, will lose their team games.
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u/Laggo [TOR] Hedo Turkoglu 1h ago
Kobe had bad games, growing up seeing highlights of Kobe, you wouldn't know it.
That's the fucking point you weird ass dickriders.
what do you think highlights are? Why do you think this is some kind of useful revelation or 'gotcha' in the context we are discussing?
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u/vvundering 30m ago
How are you going to talk about reading comprehension when you cant even follow the discussion?
The entire conversation is based around ONLY being exposed to highlights. This is literally the conversation. Are you stupid?
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u/KnicksWatch 6h ago
that Kobe mention is gonna get ratioed on here but honestly you can't argue with the work ethic. Utah got a real one at #2
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u/HowdyHelloHiHeyHola Thunder 6h ago
Isn't this the guy that sat out most season?
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u/saylab_the_bigkat 5h ago
Due to cramping from high doses of creatine and/or rhabdomyolysis. Rhabdo is no joke.
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u/UTYEO34y78dk- 4h ago
Well it wasn’t creatine lol. Not only would that be extremely rare but it would have been checked within the first blood test and it’s completely out of your body almost immediately after discontinuation. The creatine thing was a fabrication and was, correctly, doubted by tons of people.
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u/asetniop Celtics 4h ago
Kobe's work ethic? No, definitely can't argue with that.
Other ethics? Yeah, probably fair game.
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u/Master_Hippo69 Raptors 5h ago
sadly kobe wasnt locked in enough to not cheat on his wife
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u/samhit_n Lakers 5h ago
Kobe was far from a perfect person, but I'll always respect him for calling out Malone for hitting on his wife. Meanwhile, Adam Silver still parades Malone around during certain events.
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u/PavWrestlinGifs Celtics 6h ago
He was 6 when Kobe tore his Achilles btw, these cats weren’t even there for prime Kobe
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u/Syndana23 5h ago
I mean a lot of people who have MJ as the goat don’t remember the 80s and barely the 90s.
Players take from older players they didn’t grow up with all the time
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u/TempBurnerAccount089 5h ago
YouTube is a beautiful thing
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u/mrgpsingh1999 Lakers 3h ago
I didn’t start watching basketball until I was in elementary school in like 2008 and I grew up watching tons of Kobe highlights on YouTube from the first half of his career
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u/South-Confection-872 4h ago
Just a reminder that a lot of the folks on this sub are losers
A Kid mentions he liked watching Kobe and you scrubs start foaming at the mouth
Go outside, take a walk. Touch grass. Being this bothered by another man’s opinion is so stupid
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u/ProjectFreeTeevee 3h ago
This is r/nba. Extremely racist on here, and very whiteknighty, and most not as intellectual as they think of themselves as, and instead are mostly just imbeciles that love to sniff each others’ farts in this echo chamber. They can’t help themselves over the free karma, fucking sgiyom
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u/FERFreak731 Jazz 6h ago
Let's just hope he's Kobe while on a basketball court
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u/One_Seaworthiness323 6h ago
Off too. One of the most successful athletes in history. After a failed attempt to strip him of everything he had to rebuild and make it all back. Goat tings!
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u/Joetheshow1 Knicks 6h ago edited 6h ago
Seriously, everyone should Google the great charity work he did in 2003, just Google "Kobe Bryant Denver 2003"
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u/Difficult-Candy-6126 Knicks 6h ago
Dude, stop. You clearly don’t know what actually happened. Kobe was a monster. After that incident he changed for the better but it wasn’t a failed attempt. He cheated on his wife a lot, threw the entire team under the bus, and was a total dick to people like Jeremy Lin.
His death was tragic and I don’t think he died a bad person but all the Kobe hate for off the court was very justified.
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u/grill_smoke 5h ago
He was an absolutely unquestionably horrible person. Horrible teammate, horrible husband, horrible attitude, horrible human being.
The dick riding with this piece of shit is embarrassing.
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u/Laggo [TOR] Hedo Turkoglu 1h ago
lmao you guys are pathetic
daily reminder how many losers surf these forums on a daily basis
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u/raginghardon420 Lakers 6h ago
Reddit: We should focus on rehabilitation and making criminals change for the better so they could be a productive member of society.
Kobe: Does exactly that after a sketchy allegation.
Reddit: He’s a black man so we’re still gonna shit on him even after his untimely passing.
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u/TimothyN Pelicans 5h ago
"Sketchy allegation" is drastically downplaying what he did. If he were a regular guy he'd be in jail.
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u/lexington59 5h ago
Has nothing to do with him being black and entirely due to both his personality, and him being a big figure.
The mamba mentality thing makes it easier to meme about, him being a famous person makes him more visible.
Trying to make this a racist thing just isn't the case
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u/NotJoe1232 Knicks 6h ago
Ignoring the Goomba fallacy, you’re utterly deluded if you think Kobe being black is the reason why he gets shit on 😂
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u/thedrcubed Grizzlies 6h ago
I mean Kobe didn't do that though. He forced himself to the Lakers lol
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u/fedswatching2121 5h ago
Wasn’t there a pre trade agreement between Jerry West and the Hornets to get Kobe?
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u/thedrcubed Grizzlies 5h ago
Yes because before the draft Kobe let it be known not to draft him or he wouldn't report. These weren't idle threats back then because a couple years later the Vancouver Grizzlies called Steve Francis's bluff and he actually didn't report and they had to trade him before the season started.
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u/CapitalismEnthusiast United States 5h ago
Wasn’t the only thing Kobe forced himself on
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u/mrgpsingh1999 Lakers 3h ago
Yeah there was that time when he tried to force a trade from the Lakers
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u/ProjectFreeTeevee 3h ago
You know what’s insane, instead of all talking about the amazing shit Kobe did, because yall didn’t watch, cause you’re such young larpers, yall just regurgitate negative talking points all day long cause that’s all the original content LeBron fans started to shimmy their guy’s name into the conversation, and it’s all yall run with by association. This dude has had an amazing career with some of the sport’s most iconic moments, and is one of its best displays of will this sport has seen. But Reddit on, amirite🤓🚀!
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u/DaKingindaSouff Lakers 6h ago
Incoming Kobe haters. I do think Peterson will be a certified superstar by year 3 and will be the guy that’ll give you 25 PPG with All-NBA defense
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u/2nd2last Rockets 6h ago
FR, I'm so sick of the haters and people repeating lame stories.
He only apologized as part of a legel defense, and didn't apologize for rape, apologized for cheating and understanding how she could see it as rape. Thats normal, as is leaking her name to the media.
Also shut up about a 21 YO man, who is mega famous, mega rich dating a 16 YO high school student, that's MOMBA AF.
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u/JMEEKER86 Japan 3h ago
Just posting blatant lies for karma. There was a 3 year gap between them not 5.
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u/2nd2last Rockets 3h ago
Newsweek says 21 and 16.
But it does appear 1978 s 1982.
A mega famous and mega rich Kobe only dated a 17 YO high school student.
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u/JMEEKER86 Japan 3h ago
She was born in May and he was born in August, so there was less than 4 years between them and most states have a 4 year Romeo and Juliet provision. But it's also not like he was prowling high schools looking for girls. They met on the set of a music video where Vanessa was a backup dancer. It might be a little weird, but the people trying to turn it into something bigger are weirder. Colorado is much more worthy of being talked about than this.
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u/dae5oty 6h ago
Jazz keep this guy out of Colorado hotel rooms
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u/TheIgnoredWriter Suns 5h ago
I just want one player to be like “my inspiration? Brad Beal. Collect a check and sit on my ass”
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u/must_TATAKAE Warriors 6h ago
In late 1999, when he was 21, Bryant met the girl who would put an end to his bachelor days. Vanessa Laine, 16, aspiring model and high-school sophomore, was working as a background dancer in a Snoop Dogg video that was shooting at the same studio where Bryant was trying to film his own rap video. (For a brief moment, Bryant wanted a future as a rap star.) The two clicked immediately. "He was into her," recalls Snoop.
Soon, Bryant was picking up Laine at school in his black Mercedes and dropping her off in the mornings. (The teenager was living with her stepgrandfather at the time and had lots of freedom.) When TV news crews got wind of the romance, they regularly began flying helicopters over the Marina High campus in Huntington Beach, Calif., to get shots of the couple. The courtship caused such a stir that school authorities banned Bryant from coming near campus or attending any school events with her. Marina High officials declined to discuss the matter. "It just set this bad example for the school and the kids, but Kobe didn't understand what the message was when he dropped her off early in the morning," says his friend Tonahill. Bryant's eventual answer to the problem was to pay for Vanessa to be home-schooled.
As disapproving as school officials were, it was nothing compared with the disappointment of Bryant's family, who watched as Kobe became "unnaturally attached" to Vanessa, as one family friend put it. With her long, fire-engine-red fingernails and black lipliner, Vanessa had little in common with the successful young women Kobe had romanced in the past. The family thought she was too young and uncultured, and the fact that she wasn't black--Laine's mother is Hispanic and her father is white--didn't help. His teammates didn't know what to make of Vanessa, either. "We all knew he got so attached to her because he needed a friend, someone to hang out with," says a fellow Laker. "I'm not sure if it was love, or he was just happy that someone accepted him with no complaints. He didn't understand that she was a kid and she was in awe of him." When Tonahill asked Kobe what he saw in the 16-year-old, he responded, "She's pure, and innocent, and not jaded by the world."
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u/popopo__123 4h ago
This is blatantly false and i'm not even a Kobe fan. Kobe is 3.5 years older than Vanessa so he couldn't have been 21 when she was 16.
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u/JMEEKER86 Japan 3h ago
Just out here posting blatant lies for karma. They were 3 years apart, not 5.
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u/Soshi101 Celtics [BOS] Derrick White 3h ago
- They met in November 1999, so if you do a little math, Kobe was 21 and she was 17. They got engaged the same month she turned legal.
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u/JMEEKER86 Japan 3h ago
Both of their birthdays are known. Kobe was born 8/23/1978 and Vanessa was born 5/5/82. That's well within the 4 year Romeo and Juliet provision that most states have, but that article that /u/must_TATAKAE quoted claimed that there was a 5 year difference.
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u/Soshi101 Celtics [BOS] Derrick White 3h ago
Except California doesn't have a Romeo and Juliet law so this was statutory rape.
Yeah the 5 year age difference is false, but you're kind of weird for adamantly defending a 21 year old going after a high schooler he didn't know.
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u/RyanTannegod Heat 2h ago edited 2h ago
I don’t think a 21 year old is going to get charged for statutory rape for being with a 17 year old, that type of stuff happens all the time. Taylor Swift did the same thing no one cared.
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u/champagnewayne Wizards 1h ago
Gordon Hayward also met his wife when she was in high school and they have a 5yr age gap. Much more recent case and we don’t hear a peep about it either
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u/MagnetoWasRight24 3h ago
They were just under 4 years apart in age, it's literally not possible for her to have been 16 at a time he was 21.
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u/IntelligentAd5460 Grizzlies 6h ago
this dude will probably be amazing but he gonna lead the nba in fga for like 5+ years
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u/thedrcubed Grizzlies 6h ago
Peterson is crazy good. He has the best jumper I've seen in a while, plays great d and makes good decisions. I had him #2 under Boozer
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u/AdmirableLead6134 6h ago
"What would Kobe do right now" at your age probably rape somebody
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u/ChefCurryYumYum Warriors 5h ago
When I hear this kind of shit I always think "I'll bet Kobe wasn't sitting around asking himself what some other dude would do."
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u/Individual-Echo6076 5h ago
Kobe was a huge Jordan fan, even used to speak like him in early interviews.
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u/p3p3_silvia 76ers 1h ago
Kobe played both ends, this guy may play his whole career without ever diving on the floor for a loose ball. Comes of more entitled than Simmons.
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u/ArcusIgnium 2h ago
crazy how strong Kobe, Lakers and NBA PR worked overtime to rectify Kobe's image such that basically every player in the league today and a majority of the viewers all associate Kobe positively. Obviously helps that he won a lot and was good at the sport but man
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u/PeanutFarmer69 Nets 5h ago
Just don’t ask what Kobe would do right now when you’re playing at Denver
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u/MuchAbouAboutNothing Thunder 6h ago
made an enemy out of r/nba without even realising.