Well before Tyronn Lue became one of the best coaches in the NBA, he got his playing career started as a member of the Los Angeles Lakers, joining the franchise in 1998 and winning back-to-back championships in 2000 and 2001 on the famous teams led by Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal.
Of course, Lue famously had a big moment defending NBA MVP Allen Iverson in those 2001 NBA Finals which led to him getting a nice contract in free agency that summer. And perhaps he was able to do what he did against Iverson because he had been defending Bryant 1-on-1 for years at that point.
In a recent interview with Shannon Sharpe on the Club Shay Shay podcast, Lue spoke about playing Kobe 1-on-1 and never being able to beat him a single time:
"I could never beat him. I was a great 1-on-1 player. … Two years later, he became Kobe. I see why I could never beat him." – Ty Lue pic.twitter.com/wR5rJdu3On
— Club Shay Shay (@ClubShayShay) September 1, 2025
As Lue and many others have outlined, Kobe was just a different animal and spent every day relentlessly trying to be the absolute best and proving that on a regular basis. For Bryant to even want to play 1-on-1 with one hand, his off-hand no less as his right hand was broken, just shows the level that he was at and the work he was willing to put in to get to an even higher level.
Lue describing how Kobe would challenge new players to 1-on-1 just to establish that the Lakers were his team was important to him. Especially being so young, many veterans may not have wanted to fall behind, but Bryant was not gonna leave any doubt as to who the superior player was.
For Lue, who was also very young in his career, being able to play and practice against Kobe only allowed for him to improve his game that much more and led to a long playing career, before finding even more success as a head coach.
Sasha Vujacic recalls wars with Kobe Bryant at Lakers practice
Another player who had plenty of 1-on-1 meetings and battles at practice with Lakers icon Kobe Bryant is guard Sasha Vujacic who, like Lue, played a role on a pair of Lakers championship teams. Vujacic joined the Lakers in 2004 and won championships alongside Bryant in 2009 and 2010 and the guard recently recalled the battles that he and Kobe used to have in practice along the way.
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