As the basketball world gives Kobe Bryant a collective dap on his birthday as he turns 39, little tidbits like the following clip from Kevin Durant’s YouTube channel, that tie back to the Black Mamba are sprouting up.
Kevin Durant was in the YouTube Live studio doing a variety of things, including a sit-down chat with YouTube personality Sean Evans of First We Feast. As Evans went through a variety of random old Instagram photos he dug up of Durant, they landed on one of KD sitting with Kobe during a Team USA event.
That moment, Durant said, was the first time he met Kobe. It sounds like Durantula had the same reaction many Los Angeles Lakers fans would.
“I don’t remember the conversation but I can remember that I was very very… I was shaking. Kobe is a god to me, basketball-wise. So just to see him actually know my name at that time… I was 18… it was surreal,” Durant said of his first time meeting Bryant.
It’s a pretty cool admission from Durant, and came with a great kicker. The one thing he learned from Kobe?
“Every time you touch the ball, shoot it.”
Kobe!
You can check out the segment below, which starts at the 28:50 mark: