Famous Fan Of Rival Team Wrestled With Kobe Bryant Fandom When Lakers Visited
Hall of Fame Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant was such a ubiquitous figure around the country that he even made fans in rival NBA communities!
In a new conversation with Brandon "Scoop B" Robinson of Bovada Sports, musician and Oklahoma native DJ Wayne discussed how his Bryant fandom oftentimes superseded his Thunder fandom.
"Man I was rooting for Kobe every time," Wayne concedes. "I'm 32 years old. I've seen Jordan, but Kobe was everything. It's one of [those] things. Yeah I'm a Thunder fan because I'm from Oklahoma, and I'm a hometown guy. Anything that's Oklahoma I support it to the fullest. But as a kid, I was always a Laker fan because of Kobe Bryant. So anytime he came to town I was rooting for him, just straight up, like, 'Yeah I want the Thunder to win, but I'm going for Kobe.'"
To be fair to Wayne, the Thunder didn't even arrive in Oklahoma City until 2009, when he would have been 18, and presumably long-entrenched in his hoops fandom already.
Bryant, who passed away tragically in 2020, enjoyed a decorated 20-year pro career, spending all of his seasons with LA. He helped take the Lakers to seven NBA Finals appearances, winning five titles. He was named the 2008 MVP, and posted career averages of 25 points on .447/.329/.837 shooting splits, 5.2 rebounds, and 4.7 assists a night across 1,346 regular season contests.
His 33,643 career regular season points ranks fourth all-time, behind fellow Lakers LeBron James, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone (yes, Karl Malone was a Laker for a year, so we're counting him).
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