The media witnessed what Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant is like during practice: a lot of intensity, and a lot of swear words. Bryant didn't hold back on his teammates during the part of Thursday's scrimmage that was opened to media, calling his teammates "soft."
Bryant, who's been held out of practices frequently this season to keep his legs fresh, returned to practice for the first time this month and quickly unloaded on his teammates with trash talk.
Some of the gems, via ESPN:
-To Nick Young: "You're going exactly where I want you to go."
-To everybody: "You mother------s are soft like Charmin in this mother------. God damn, is this the type of s--- that's going on in these practices? Now I see why we've lost 20 f---ing games. We're soft like Charmin. We're soft like s---."
-To Jeremy Lin, whom Bryant dared to shoot: "This mother------ don't got s---. He ain't got s--- right now. Shoot! Shoot!"
-After Lin missed a pull-up jumper: "I talked his a-- right into that bulls---. I talked his a-- right into that bulls---."
-To everybody: "Practice gets real uncomfortable when I'm in this mother----."
To general manager Mitch Kupchak: "I'm supposed to practice and get better, Mitch. I'm supposed to practice and get better. These motherf-----s ain't doing s--- for me."
Bryant, who had been held out of full practices this month, insisted he was just being himself.
"No, I was just being myself," said Bryant. "I don't know if it helps them but it obviously raises the intensity level. It was a tough practice for them ... It's really good for Nick, aside from the fun of bantering back and forth and the trash talk, just fundamentally some of the techniques and things that I use. He gets a chance to really see up close those little tricks."
Young started the trash talking during the scrimmage, according to Bryant.
