Kobe Bryant grew so disenchanted with Smush Parker during the one season the two composed the L.A. Lakers backcourt the Hall of Fame bound guard refused to talk to the rookie during practice.
Parker tells ProBasketballTalk.com Bryant once told "you can't talk to me," adding that he dared to try to approach Bryant on the subject of anything non-basketball related. "He looked at me in practice and was dead serious and said 'you can't talk to me.' You need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me."
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The bad-blood nature of Bryant and Parker's relationship has become well known over the years with the man regularly vilified as one "the worst Lakers in franchise history" openly referring to the experience of having played with one of the league's all-time greats as "overrated."
Over the years, Parker has also boasted of how he stopped passing Bryant the ball largely because of his ball-hogging ways.
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"You can't knock the man's legacy, you can't knock what he's done in basketball," Parker previously told reporters. "His work ethic is tremendous. There's not an ounce of hate in my blood whatsoever. The guy can play basketball - you've seen that throughout his career. What I don't like about him is the man that he is. His personality. How he treats people. I don't like that side of Kobe Bryant. The reason I wasn't a Laker after my second year is because I didn't bow down to Kobe."
Bryant has referred to the period as a time when the "Lakers were too cheap" to field all quality players and "let Parker walk on."
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