Mark Cuban knew Kobe Bryant was going to do great things once he retired from the NBA. The Dallas Mavericks owner was recently on ABC’s The View and revealed a story about the Los Angeles Lakers legend who died in a helicopter crash nearly one month ago. He talked about how Bryant left him voicemails about beating him in the business world.
.@mcuban reflects on his friendship with Kobe Bryant and shares about recently discovering a string of old text messages between the two of them.
“Kobe just is a legend,” he tells us. “We’ll love him forever.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/b8pp7tw0lX
— The View (@TheView) February 25, 2020
“You know how sometimes you pick up old phones and you turn them on, I was doing that three days ago at the All-Star (Game),” Cuban said. “I picked up a phone and I had a whole string of messages from Kobe. (He) was talking about doing business after his retirement. He was coming on to my turf and I was going to kick is a— in the business world, and him coming back and saying ‘let’s go at it.’ Kobe is a legend.”
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Cuban went on to reveal that there was one good thing to come out of the helicopter crash which is people coming together and show love for one another.
“The best thing out of this tragedy, it was the first time I’ve seen people who have never seen each other, know each other come together and hug, cry, kiss each other,” Cuban added. “And if that’s his legacy forever, we’ll love him forever. “
Cuban didn’t speak at the public memorial service for Bryant and his 13-year old daughter Gianna who also died in the helicopter crash, but his former teammate, Shaquille O’Neal did and he shared a hilarious story.
“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.’”
Bryant was a member of the Lakers from 1996-2016. He led the team to five NBA championships and was named to the All-Star team 18 times. He also finished his career with an MVP award and two NBA Finals MVP trophies.
