THE NBA SEASON tipped off last night and, wouldn’t ya just know it, fans were treated to some epic trash-talking to Get things nicely warmed up.
The Lakers’ 108 – 90 loss to Houston marked the first time that Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard met on a basketball court since the latter left LA.
Sure enough, by the time the fourth quarter came about – and the Rockets had built up a healthy lead thanks to James Harden’s 32-point night – they came to blows. Howard caught the Black Mamba with an elbow after taking one of his 11 rebounds in the game.
Gotta hand it to Kobe, plenty of guys would have dived there. Instead, Bryant plunged into some verbals.
https://vine.co/v/OMXXLdWuz6q
We’re not lip-readers, but it sure looks like he’s calling the 6′ 11″ Howard “soft” in the above Vine. And he was also filmed mouthing something very close to ‘try me’ as the pair were separated.
Afterwards, Howard avoided getting embroiled in a further spat, telling NBA.com: ”There’s no need to go into it. We won the game.”
Bryant said: ”He’s a teddy bear. I really mean that. He’s a nice kid.”
Something tells us ‘nice’ doesn’t quite cut it in Kobe’s world.