Read What LeBron James Said After Passing Kobe Bryant For Third On The NBA's All-Time Scorers List
LeBron James sat in front of his locker and spent four uninterrupted minutes gushing about Kobe Bryant.
He had just passed Bryant for third place on the NBA's all-time scorers list with his 33,644th point after making a driving layup with 7 minutes and 22 seconds left in the third quarter of Saturday's 108-91 loss to Philadelphia.
This accomplishment meant something to him.
James, a three-time NBA champion, four-time MVP and 16-time All-Star, was earnestly taken aback by what he had just done -- and outlined in detail the different moments throughout his life that Bryant inspired him.
When James hit the milestone, the game was stopped. He received high fives from his teammates and a standing ovation from the crowd in Philadelphia, where Bryant was born.
Bryant even tweeted a congratulatory message, writing, "Continuing to move the game forward @KingJames Much respect my brother #33644."
But the moment was truly put into perspective when James, who wore sneakers inscribed with the words "Mamba 4 life 8/24 KB," told a locker room filled with reporters that this milestone is surreal and "doesn't make sense."
Here's what James said about Bryant over those four minutes, in full.
"When I was a kid, when I was in high school, I was growing up through the ranks when Kobe came into the league. It wasn't a dream of mine to come straight from high school at that point in time to the NBA. But I was like, wow, a 17-year-old or 18-year-old kid being able to make that leap, that's pretty damn cool.
"And as I started playing more ball, and I went into high school, the things he was doing on the floor I admired and wanted to be a part of. I went to ABCD camp, and he came and talked to all of the kids who was there. And I happened to be one of the kids who was there. I was just listening. I was just trying to soak up everything that I could. I remember one thing that he said, he was like, 'If you want to try to be great at it, or if you want to be one of the greats, you've got to put the work in. There's no substitution to work.' I was a 15-year-old kid at that camp, you can actually find the footage of him at that camp.
"And in 2001, I believe I was playing in Jersey, and the All-Star game if I'm not mistaken was in Philly, right? Yeah, that Saturday me and Maverick [Carter] drove to the Intercontinental in downtown Philadelphia and he gave me a pair of his shoes which I ended up wearing that following night. It was the red, white and blue Kobes. I was a [size] 15 and he was a 14, and I wore them anyways. I sat and just talked to him for a little bit. He gave me the shoes and I rocked them in the game. It was the same night that we played Oak Hill against 'Melo [Anthony]. And then I saw what he was able to do the very next night, win MVP here in Philly, that following night.
"As I got drafted, I still just admired him, seeing what he was able to accomplish, winning championships. Early in his career, he learned from the misses that he had in the series against Utah, and he just used that as motivation and got better and better and better, to him winning multiple championships. I continued to admire him throughout my high school rank.
"Then as competitors, just seeing the work ethic, the work ethic that he put into the game. He had zero flaws offensively. Zero. You backed off of him, and he could shoot the three. You body him up a little bit, and he'd go around you. He could shoot the midrange, he could post, he could make free throws. He had zero flaws offensively. That's something I admired as well, just being at a point where the defense will always be at bay, where they can't guard you at all. We just felt like he was immortal offensively because of his skillset and his work ethic.
"We take it down to [the Olympic Games in] 2008, when we became the Redeem Team and it was a dream come true for me to be able to lineup alongside of him, just admiring him for so many years and seeing him from afar, and then being able to be at practices with him, and me watching and learning.
"It's just too much. It's just too much. The story is just too much. It doesn't make sense. Just to make a long story short, now I'm here in a Lakers uniform in Philadelphia, where he's from, where one of the first times I ever met him he gave me his shoes that he wore to All-Star weekend. It's surreal. It doesn't make no sense. But the universe just puts things in your life, and when you're living the right way, and you're giving everything to whatever you're doing, things happen organically. It's not supposed to make sense. But it just happens. I'm happy just to be in any conversation with Kobe Bean Bryant, one of the all-time greatest basketball players that ever played, one of the all-time greatest Lakers. The man's got two jerseys hanging up in Staples Center. It's just crazy."
