Try to Guess These Big-Time Ballers Before They Were NBA Stars
Take a look at what some of the best NBA stars of the court were like before they became big-time ballers... By Brett SingerSnakkle Exclusive:
Kobe Bryant: “I knew him when I was in middle school”
Amy—then an opinionated middle schooler—met Kobe Bryant and his agent on an Amtrak train in 1996, the day after the senior at Lower Merion High School (outside Philadelphia) had signed with the Los Angeles Lakers. “There were these two tall guys sitting in front of me and they had a newspaper,” Amy tells Snakkle. “I went up to them and asked if I could borrow the sports page.” Amused, they asked why; Amy promptly informed them that she was a basketball player and a big Knicks fan who had fallen asleep before the end of the previous night’s game. (This is pre-Internet, people.) “They asked me if I knew who Kobe Bryant was,” Amy continues. “I said that I didn’t. Then they asked if I thought high school athletes should go to college before going to the NBA. I quite confidently told him that I thought it was really important that everybody go to college, and that I was going to go to college, and that he should too.” Kobe apparently got a kick out of the cute kid, revealing his true identity by showing her a photo of himself and Brandy in the paper (Bryant was on his way to Philly to take the pop star to his prom). “At that point I was finally impressed,” Amy tells us, “because I definitely knew who Brandy was.” Bryant signed the article “Dear Amy, best of luck with your basketball career.”
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