IFWT_Kobe LeBron hug

As much as some Kobe Bryant and LeBron James’ fans wanted the two to hate each other, they’re actually good friends.  “We’ve been close,” Bryant said, per Mark Medina of the Los Angeles Daily News. “We talk more than people know.”  The two bonded before James even entered the league.  It began when Bryant gave James a pair of shoes before the teenaged LeBron was to play in a high school tournament against Carmelo Anthony’s Oak Hill Academy.  Bryant revealed the most important advice he gave James that day.

“I remember that,” Bryant said, addressing a packed media room before his final game at The Q. “I remember sitting down and talking with him. And the advice that I gave him, because he was going to have so much coming at him, was just to stay focused on the game, stay true to the craft. And everything else would kind of sort itself out.

“And I think that was the most important piece of advice I could’ve given him at the time.”

“I wouldn’t say he was a rival, or, I never looked to see what he was doing, or someone to kind of push me,” Bryant said. “I just felt like we were completely different generations. I just missed that thing completely. Not like a Magic and Bird sort of thing.

“It was more like, from the time he came in the league it was more helping him, giving him direction, advice, cause I was just so much older by NBA years.”

This was the Cleveland stop on Bryant’s farewell tour in this his 20th and final season with the Los Angeles Lakers.

The two hugged on the court before the Cavs beat the Lakers 120-111.

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source: Cleveland.com