{"id":93201,"date":"2025-08-24T09:03:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T09:03:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93201\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T09:03:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T09:03:07","slug":"feel-like-a-father-byron-scott-shares-touching-moment-from-kobe-bryants-rookie-year-to-honor-the-mamba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/93201\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cFeel Like a Father\u201d: Byron Scott Shares Touching Moment From Kobe Bryant\u2019s Rookie Year to Honor the Mamba"},"content":{"rendered":"<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-1\" class=\"data-event\">On the occasion of what would have been Kobe Bryant\u2019s 47th birthday, wishes have been pouring in from fans and teammates worldwide. Such was the love that the NBA community had for Bryant that people are still finding new stories about him to keep his memory alive. Byron Scott, who both played with and coached Kobe on the Lakers, shared a heartwarming video of the two, recorded during Bryant\u2019s rookie year.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-2\" class=\"data-event\">On his \u2018Fast Break with Byron Scott\u2019 podcast\u2019s YouTube channel, Scott (or his management team) uploaded a video of the former Lakers shooting guard praising the rookie Bryant. Scott, who is 17 years Bryant\u2019s senior, jokingly claimed that he felt like a father to Kobe and called him his \u201cboy\u201d with tremendous joy.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-3\" class=\"data-event\">He also joked about how the rest of the Lakers locker room called him \u201cshowboat\u201d because they saw every day what he was capable of. \u201cThis is my man, this is my man. This is showboat. We call him showboat, but y\u2019all know him as Kobe Bryant,\u201d Scott <a href=\"https:\/\/youtube.com\/shorts\/PFBvRZ-kFjw?si=SH_D0WOT3GVDUAWC\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-utm_source=\"article\" data-utm_medium=\"content\" data-utm_campaign=\"link\">said<\/a> in the video.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-4\" class=\"data-event\">Kobe rode the bench a lot in his rookie year, and in that time and Scott was right there with him. He jokingly explained to the camera how the two, despite the massive age gap, grew close.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-5\" class=\"data-event\">\u201cThis is my main man. I feel like a father, though, I mean, this is my boy!\u201d he said, while Kobe laughed. \u201cWe play together, we sit on the bench by each other, we\u2019re always talking.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-6\" class=\"data-event\">Of course, even as a rookie straight out of high school, Kobe was showing flashes of greatness, and Scott wasn\u2019t about to let that go unnoticed. Despite backing up the likes of Nick Van Exel, Eddie Jones, and Cedric Ceballos, Bryant made sure to leave his mark.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-7\" class=\"data-event\">Coach Del Harris did limit his minutes to about 15.5 a game but he managed to have his highest scoring game of 24 points in April \u201997 and scored 15+ twelve times.<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-8\" class=\"data-event\">Scott made sure to tell the audience that Kobe was going to be a great player in the league someday, saying, \u201cThis kid right here, mark my words, and I said this earlier, he\u2019s going to be unbelievable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p data-type=\"content\" data-variant=\"p\" id=\"article-content-block-9\" class=\"data-event\">Scott\u2019s talent ID probably explains how we became a head coach in the NBA after his retirement, because he was spot on about Kobe\u2019s potential. 5 championships, 2 Finals MVPs, and 33,643 points later, Kobe Bryant retired a bona fide NBA legend. We miss him every day since his passing, and seeing a young Kobe laugh and enjoy life just brings a tear to our eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the occasion of what would have been Kobe Bryant\u2019s 47th birthday, wishes have been pouring in from&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[434],"tags":[49,48,459,82],"class_list":["post-93201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}