Topics: Kobe Bryant, NBA, Michael Jordan
Kobe Bryant was once bet $50,000 by a then up and coming NBA star that he would beat him in a 1v1 game - and the aftermath led to a legend of the game claiming he would come out on top against Bryant.
Bryant spent his entire career with the Los Angeles Lakers in a career which lasted two decades and came to a conclusion in 2016.
Bryant won the NBA Championship five times, was twice the NBA Finals MVP, and was also the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2008.
Very sadly, Bryant died aged 41 along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others who tragically lost their lives in a January 2020 helicopter crash in Calabasas, California.
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Back in 2012, a then 19-year-old Kyrie Irving bet $50,000 that he would beat Bryant in a 1v1 encounter on the court, with the money going to the winner’s favourite charity.
Bryant - who also won two Olympic gold medals with the American team at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 - is said to have agreed but it is unknown if the match ever took place.
Irving - now aged 33 - is a one-time NBA Champion which he won with the Cleveland Cavaliers, with his career taking him to the Boston Celtics, Brooklyn Nets and he is currently with the Dallas Mavericks.
Like Bryant, he is also an Olympic gold medal winner having triumphed with the American team at Rio 2016.
Bryant once said that he believed only the legendary Michael Jordan could beat him in a 1v1 match.
He said: “That's what I do. If there's gonna be a player to beat me, he retired on that last shot in Utah in '98.”
But another NBA legend from back in the day once put their name into the frame as a potential victor in a 1v1 duel with Bryant, even going so far as to say he ‘taught’ him how to play basketball.
Oscar Robertson - known as the Big O - represented the Cincinnati Royals and Milwaukee Bucks in a career which spanned from 1960 to 1974.
Robertson became an NBA Champion with the Bucks in 1971 and was named the NBA’s Most Valuable Player in 1964 when he was with the Royals.
But when the question was posed to him who would win out of him and Bryant, Robertson was in no doubt that he would emerge on top in a 1v1 bout.
He said: “Oh I’d beat Kobe Bryant, I taught him basketball!”
