Former Los Angeles Lakers star and current NBA analyst James Worthy spent a good amount of time with the late Kobe Bryant over the years, which led to him paying tribute to Bryant on social media. On Monday during the celebration of life memorial for Bryant and his daughter Gianna, Worthy went to Instagram to post a photo of himself interviewing Bryant during practice. In the caption, the Lakers legend wrote “2/24” with a purple and yellow heart emojis.
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There were a number of Lakers fans who responded to Worthy’s post.
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“He will be missed by people all over the world,” one fan wrote. “Gods speed home. Kobe and Gigi! Lakers Family and friends. Let’s celebrate our gifted athlete.”
“Love Kobe Bean Bryant and Gianna Forever,” another fan wrote. “Lakers family.”
Worthy attended the memorial along with a number of Lakers legends such as Magic Johnson, Phil Jackson, Jerry West, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elgin Baylor, Michael Cooper, Pau Gasol, Byron Scott, Metta World Peace, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, A.C. Green, Rick Fox, Brian Shaw, Sasha Vujacic and former trainer Gary Vitti, according to USA Today. None of them spoke at the ceremony, but Bryant’s former teammate Shaquille O’Neal did, speaking about their chemistry on the court.
“Sometimes like immature kids, we argued, we fought, we bantered, or insulted each other with off-hand remarks,” O’Neal said per USA Today. “But make no mistake, even when folks thought we were on bad terms, when the cameras were turned off, he and I would throw a wink at each other and say, ‘Let’s go whoop some ass.’”
O’Neal also told a story about a time the two got into a heated debate.
“The day Kobe gained my respect was… The guys were complaining, saying ‘Shaq, Kobe’s not passing the ball!’” O’Neal recalled. “I said ‘I’ll talk to him.’”
“I said ‘Kobe, there’s no I in team.’ Kobe said ‘I know, but there’s an M-E in that motherf—er.’”
As time went on, O’Neal and Bryant became good friends and it has led to O’Neal still having a hard time dealing with Bryant’s death which happened on Jan. 26.
“I think we should celebrate what he did and I really continue to be sad that he’s not here,” he said. “And the world’s doing a great job. Every time I scroll up, I see videos and pictures of him. “So of course he won’t ever be forgotten but some of us are still suffering a little harder than others. But we just need to move on and just continue to tell each other how great he was.”
