Get email updates with the day's biggest stories Invalid Email Something went wrong, please try again later. Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Kobe Bryant says it's ‘f*****g awesome’ to see LeBron James in LA Lakers' colours. The legend sat courtside on Thursday night at Staples Centre - his first look at the megastar in the Purple and Gold. Kobe told Lakers' top writer Bill Oram exactly what it meant to see LeBron in action for a club where he was an icon for over 20 years. James got his first triple double and made key plays against Denver in the 121-114 win. (Image: Getty Images) (Image: REUTERS) Oram tweeted: "On his way out of Staples Center @KobeBryant told me and @taniaganguli what he thought of his first close-up look at LeBron James as a Laker. “It’s f*****g awesome. Being here in this building. Seeing the fans, seeing the energy back in the place, it's awesome.” It's fair to say LeBron has the Lakers' royal seal of approval. "It’s my first home win as a Laker, my first triple-double as a Laker,” James said. “Any time you’re able to do good things individually that results in wins, that’s what’s important to me. When it results in a win.” (Image: X02835) After the game, he was asked whether he noticed Bryant in the arena. “Of course,” he said. “Noticed him sitting right there on the baseline over there, one of the all-time Laker greats. What he’s done for this franchise in the 20-plus years he was here speaks wonders. “For me to be able to compete against him all those years. For me to be able to share a jersey, the same jersey as him at this point, I think it’s pretty special.”<doc-sep>LeBron James, for the first time in his career, is going to have to adapt to a fan base that has championed previous greats before his arrival: Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Magic Johnson, and Kobe Bryant to name a few. Ironically, when its all said and done, LeBron will out-rank each of them in terms of all-time greats. We are, however, beginning to think that the Los Angeles Lakers fan base doesn't deserve James' greatness. Check out what fans started chanting when LA got down only SIX against the Denver Nuggets early in the fourth quarter last night: Lakers fall down 6 in the early part of the 4th Q. Fans start chanting "Ko-be! Ko-be!" (he's sitting courtside). LeBron hits a catch-and-shoot 3. Lakers down 3, quiets the Kobe chants (at least temporarily) — Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 26, 2018 ​This comes less than 24 hours after some clown suggested that the Lakers trade LeBron for a superstar who "works harder." And we thought New York and Philadelphia fans were crazy. LA isn't giving LeBron more than five games to gel with his new teammates before ​they're calling for Kobe, a player who was statistically one of the worst players in the ​NBA at the time he retired. LeBron James has 23 pts, 10 reb, 10 ast for his 74th triple-double of his career (and 1st as a Laker), putting him, four back of matching Wilt Chamberlain for 5th all-time. — Dave McMenamin (@mcten) October 26, 2018 Guess what Los Angeles? ​Your Lakers won last night and LeBron put up 28-11-11.<doc-sep>The new-look Los Angeles Lakers led by LeBron James haven’t won a game to begin the year. They dropped to 0-3 thanks to a Patty Mills shot giving the San Antonio Spurs a 143-142 win overtime, but before the game-winner, James missed two free throws from the charity stripe, where he’s struggled at times in recent years. He then missed a game-winner of his own. That led Lakers fans and others to compare James to Kobe Bryant AND others to mock die-hards who would say that. By Tuesday morning, “Kobe” was trending in the United States on Twitter. First, some seemingly serious Kobe-LeBron tweets: Obviously, Kobe wouldn't have missed those two free throws to ice the game late in overtime. — Skip Bayless (@RealSkipBayless) October 23, 2018 Lakers needed one more guy tonight. And that guy is Kobe Bryant. — Bill Simmons (@BillSimmons) October 23, 2018 Kobe Bryant would have made both. — Dan Duangdao (@DanDuangdao) October 23, 2018 Kobe would have made that pic.twitter.com/jVAqzken1J — Kyler (@KylerTVB) October 23, 2018 Kobe at home watching Lebron miss those freethrows like pic.twitter.com/f2jYjmCeI1 — 👨🏾‍🚀 (@xwop_) October 23, 2018 Kobe watching LeBron miss those free throws and that game winner. pic.twitter.com/GLRqsymFve — Feel Jack Son (@Dreamville_Heat) October 23, 2018 Kobe made both his free throws with a torn achilles. Just saying. pic.twitter.com/I5jBYIp0jc — Michael Jordan (@PettyAirJordan) October 23, 2018 LECHOKE. Kobe would never miss those clutch shots pic.twitter.com/hVYyemdPat — ⛵️ ᑕOᗩᑕᕼ ⛵️ Lakers (79-3) (@CoachJakeNBA) October 23, 2018 That's y'alls goat ? Where all you "lebron better than Kobe" fans at ? Kobe would never ! 😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/rWQktlxJ7W — Katherine ♡ (@Kathy02Diaz) October 23, 2018 Kobe would’ve made them free throws…. 🤷🏽‍♂️ — Darius Slay (@_bigplayslay23) October 23, 2018 And some mocking tweets: Every Laker loss is the Joker throwing the pool cue between LeBron and Kobe fans pic.twitter.com/5hgQ3uRJXR — Daman Rangoola (@damanr) October 23, 2018 Day 1 Laker fans liking “Kobe would’ve made the FTs” tweets pic.twitter.com/zXQKXSkJ7t — mid szn form (@CountOnVic) October 23, 2018 if kobe was in attendance GIF version pic.twitter.com/TeheJpHNbM — LeRob Perez (@WorldWideWob) October 23, 2018 Lakers fans remembering Kobe Bryant right now. pic.twitter.com/Cth0pZkZk4 — NBA Memes (@NBAMemes) October 23, 2018 And here’s a sensible tweet on the subject: not gonna slander LeBron because the same happened to Kobe. We just gotta play better smh pic.twitter.com/8do9OPspVY — LakeShowYo™ (@LakeShowYo) October 23, 2018 That last one is correct, of course.<doc-sep>
The recent free throw misses of LeBron James in the clutch has garnered, yet again, comparisons to Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant. Fans defended Bryant at the expense of James, noting that the former would never botch free throws in a game’s critical moment. After James missed crucial free throws which eventually led to a Lakers loss, fans flocked to Twitter to criticize him, dragging along Bryant’s legendary late-game heroics. Check out some tweets below: WOW KOBE WOULD NEVER — William Lou (@william_lou) October 23, 2018 Kobe would’ve never missed two back to back free throws in the clutch like that 😒😒 — Ricco Swerv💎💰🤫 (@_ogpapiricco_) October 23, 2018 One even brought the time when Bryant had to shoot some free throws despite an injured Achilles: Kobe would NEVER. Kobe hitting these with torn Achilles. https://t.co/uNRNHxJCYI — darkwing (@Kowenmoffor) October 23, 2018 But a Twitter user dug up an old clip featuring Bryant choking in the clutch: “Kobe would never” y’all all poor and full of shxt pic.twitter.com/2GHTycc0Xl — 5at Cuz (@LuvvVSFatCuz) October 23, 2018 As observed, it’s pretty similar to the situation faced by James. To recall, the Lakers were up by one point and he had a chance to extend it to three with two free throws. As well know by now, James missed and it was all that the Spurs needed to snatch the victory. However, SB Nation’s Matt Ellentuck dug up a number of forgotten instances where Bryant actually missed two free throws in a game’s dying seconds. Scroll through the bottom of his article to see some serious historical work. The old clips featuring Bryant prove that there’s no reason to compare our favorite basketball players. Each and every player, no matter how good they are, have had bad games added to their slates. Bryant is considered one of the greatest closers in the history of basketball. But it doesn’t mean that his clutch performance is without a stain.