Donald Trump Confirms He Once Broke Up a Kobe Bryant Fight

Kobe Bryant still lives strong in the memories of not just sports fans, but also the casual person, including a certain United States President.

Donald Trump Confirms He Once Broke Up a Kobe Bryant Fight

Donald Trump and Kobe Bryant (Image via FirstSportz)

In Short
  • Donald Trump revealed he once broke up a fight involving Kobe Bryant in 1998 during an All-Star weekend event.
  • The incident occurred in an elevator with NBA players Jayson Williams and Charles Oakley, where tensions escalated.
  • Trump's admission has sparked discussions about his relationship with the NBA and the ongoing debates among Kobe Bryant's fans regarding scoring records.

When it comes to the late Kobe Bryant, many individuals have a lot of stories to recall. After all, the Los Angeles Lakers’ great was the epitome of determination, grit, and a relentless pursuit of perfection.

Those qualities made him a household name and someone the sports world, celebrities, and fans worldwide respected to a great extent.

Even though the five-time champion had some negatives in his life, to date, no one wants to talk about anything other than how great a person and a competitive athlete he was.

That was a long time ago. I wasn’t in a fight, I was breaking up a fight… I like Kobe. Kobe was having a hard time with somebody, and it worked out fine. But yeah, I broke it up.

Donald Trump told Jake Paul

TMZ confirmed that the said incident took place back in 1998, when Kobe Bryant was all of 20 years old. The premise was that the Lakers guard was in an elevator alongside Jayson Williams, Charles Oakley, and Trump during the All-Star weekend in New York.

The story goes Williams was upset with how Bryant greeted him … as he felt a young hooper should have shown more respect to the vet — and got so pissed that he swung on the Lakers star. It was apparently so intense that Trump intervened to de-escalate the situation.

TMZ revealed

Had somebody told those three NBA stars at the time that a future two-time President of the United States was in the elevator with them, it is doubtful that they would have even attempted to express their feelings.

Kobe Bryant’s ‘stans’ were behind Wilt Chamberlain 100-Point game controversy

This was a surprising admission from Donald Trump, considering he does not have a good relationship with the NBA or its current generation players.

Kobe Bryant's gesture after 81-point game eventually became his statue
Kobe Bryant’s gesture after 81-point game eventually became his statue (Image via LADEig/X)

But it is not surprising to say that he ‘liked’ the late Kobe Bryant. The Philadelphia native has legions of fans across the world, out of whom can be loosely termed as ‘fanatics.’

Many of those fanatics were the first to criticize the NBA and its current relaxed rules for allowing Bam Adebayo to ‘unethically’ score 83 points against the Washington Wizards a couple of days ago.

Since their late superstar’s 81-point effort now stands third, that anger has led to several debates. But in the midst of this backlash, one analyst questions if those ‘fanatic’ fans were also behind another controversy.

It occurred to me after the Bam thing what’s actually going on. You know what that conspiracy stuff about Wilt really was? That’s Kobe stans really, thinking at the time, whether conscious or unconscious, ‘If we take 100 points away from Wilt, Kobe has the all-time record.’ Now Bam has 83. That’s what infuriated the Kobe fans so much.

Max Kellerman said on the Game Over podcast

The longtime analyst believes that Kobe Bryant’s fans were the ones creating the controversy that Wilt Chamberlain‘s 100-point game did not exist, as there was no video proof.

That is what they tried again with Bam Adebayo’s effort, just so that their superstar had the records to his name. After all, Bryant’s gesture after his 81-point game eventually became his statue. It seems fans felt that memorial now lost its value.

Mural in Los Angeles shows Kobe Bryant passing the torch to Bam Adebayo

Bam Adebayo and his head coach Erik Spoelstra hit back at those fans and members of the media for criticizing the 83-point effort, suggesting that they should watch the entire game before drawing conclusions.

On top of that, the Miami Heat center reiterated that if anything was unethical, it was the way the Washington Wizards were evidently throwing the game.

Back in Los Angeles, the atmosphere is still livid, with Lakers fans booing Adebayo’s effort when it was announced during a game. However, it seems Underdog did not seem to care.

A video clip shows that the media house created a mural in Venice Beach, depicting Kobe Bryant passing a torch to the Heat center for overtaking him in the single-game scoring record.

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