Amidst Stephen A Smith’s Public Humiliation Of Jason Whitlock, Kobe Bryant’s 13-Year-Old Rant Against The Former ESPN Employee Resurfaces

Credits: USA TODAY SPORTS

Former ESPN employee Jason Whitlock has been in the news for the past few days, not because of his merits, but because of some beef he has been involved with veteran NBA analyst, Stephen A. Smith. Amid all the drama, however, an old video of Kobe Bryant humiliating Whitlock surfaces.

Jason Whitlock was present at the 2011 All-Star game where Kobe Bryant took home the All-Star MVP honors after the West defeated the East 143-148. After the game, Bryant sat down with the media where he had an interaction with Jason Whitlock as well.

During the post-game press conference, The Los Angeles Lakers legend was asked a question by Whitlock that Kobe had a hilarious reaction to. Whitlock asked Bryant, “Kobe, not to twist your words or read too much into what you said. But being around young players energized you, that’s not a statement about maybe you’d like to see some young players on your team?”

Bryant’s instant response had the entire room burst out in laughter. Bryant went on to say, “WOW. You know what? That’s a Bikram Yoga Stretch. You stretched the hell out of that (question). Good job, good job. I’m not even gonna answer that. That’s just silly.”

The camera did not point back at Jason Whitlock but you can be sure that Bryant’s response had Whitlock hiding his face at the 2011 All-Star post-game press conference. It is hard to blame Bryant for his comments either, considering how direct the analyst was with his stretch. After all those kinds of questions can easily start all kinds of rumors that could culminate in serious discord within a team’s dressing room.

This interaction between Jason Whitlock and Kobe Bryant happened 13 years ago. And as mentioned previously, it was brought right back to the limelight because of a very public tiff Whitlock is in the middle of with fellow NBA analyst, Stephen A. Smith.

Whitlock is being berated by Smith years after humiliation by Kobe Bryant

You may be wondering why Stephen A. Smith has been going off on Jason Whitlock these past few days. It all started when Jason Whitlock went on to take shots at Smith for his controversial takes and his college basketball career.

Whitlock had statements like, “Stephen A. Smith is the Kevin Hart of the sports media.” He went on to say, “His inadequacies as a journalist make him easy to control.” Whitlock even took a shot at Stephen A. Smith’s memoir.

Smith decided to go off on Jason Whitlock. His first tweet read, “Today is the day I finally speak my mind about that no good fat bastard. You know who I’m talking about. Recording now. You will want to see this.”

He then proceeded to retweet that with a video clip from The Stephen A. Smith Show, where he went off on a rant about Jason Whitlock.

By the looks of it, the beef between the two does not seem to be stopping or slowing down anytime soon.