A few years ago, Jamal Crawford told a funny story about how Kobe Bryantused to hiss like a snake on the court when he wanted one of his teammates to pass him the basketball.
“When I first played with Kobe—they call him the Black Mamba—but he was doing like a little snake sound when he wanted the ball,” Crawford said on ESPN’s Highly Questionable. “It was crazy. It’s like, 'Tssss, tssss.' Like fishing. 'Tssss, tssss.' He do that. Everybody tell you he’s gonna do it before you play him. Like, 'Wait ’til you hear him do this.' And then he [does] it, and it’s like, 'What?' He’s really a mamba. It sounds like some kind of snake.”
Wizards forward Jared Dudley made an appearance on ESPN’s Mike & Mike this morning, and he confirmed Crawford’s story by revealing that Kobe did, in fact, used to hiss like a snake when he wanted the ball in his hands:
It’s still crazy to us that Kobe took the whole Black Mamba thing that far, but at the same time, we can’t say that we’re surprised. And we’re sure that there are a whole bunch of NBA players out there (both inside and outside of the Lakers' locker room) who are glad that they won’t have to hear that sound anymore.
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