Was Kobe Bryant A Bad Leader? Or Was Jeremy Lin Soft? Ex-Laker Speaks on Black Mamba's 'Bad' Body Language

When a player is head and shoulders better than his teammates, how much respect does that individual owe them? 

Kobe Bryant is a top-10 player on plenty of NBA fans' all-time lists, but one small qualm people may have had with Kobe was his ambition to win at all costs. 

En route to five championships, Kobe rubbed plenty of teammates the wrong way, including former Laker and Asian basketball icon Jeremy Lin.

LOS ANGELES, CA - NOVEMBER 23:  Jeremy Lin #17 of the Los Angeles Lakers looks on during a break in the NBA game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on November 23, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)

Lin’s "Linsanity" run was a unique phenomenon for fans of early 2010s basketball. The unexpected rise of a bench player who broke the NBA mold propelled Lin into a household name. 

Playing his way into an integral role in New York's offense gave Lin a fruitful career, and one of his many pitstops was with the Los Angeles Lakers from 2014 to 2015 alongside the "Black Mamba."

Lin recently sat down with fellow ex-Laker Dwight Howard and recounted his side of sharing the court with Kobe. While Kobe was never trying to be a nice guy in the name of winning, he gave Lin the "tough-love" treatment that eventually reached a breaking point.

WATCH:

Recounting the friction, Lin explained:

"I was just thinking in the moment, like, 'Hey, you gotta help.' He was upset at me over something that I was actually trying to do, but the coach was telling me not to do it. Kobe's like, 'Foul him.' I was like, 'I know, I'm trying to,' but the coach is telling me, 'Don't foul.' So then I'm like, I don't know what to do. It ended up being something where he had given me really bad body language."

But is Lin being a bit soft by demanding "respect" from a player leagues above his own skillset? Lin, 37, spoke with Dwight about confronting Bryant about that "bad body language," which only deepened the rift. At the end of the day, who was Jeremy Lin to "challenge" Kobe Bryant? Lin didn't want to be "talked down" to, which led to him texting Kobe directly to address the tension.

"Me and him, when we would lose, we'd be up at like three or four in the morning just not able to sleep, just very competitive," Lin recalled.

"I texted him and I was like, 'Hey man, I really don't appreciate the body language.' He came back with a sharp response and then I went back at him. But it ended cordial where I ended up saying, 'I'm not saying that you can't teach me. You're obviously like a hundred times the player I am. I wanna learn anything and everything I can from you. I'm just asking, can you just do it in a way that's respectful to me as a man?'"

According to Lin, Kobe initially accepted the feedback, responding with, "Alright, I got you," and even sending over a text with basketball advice. Lin committed to the work, telling him, "I’m gonna be focused on that. I’m just trying to get better. I’m trying to help this team more." However, the peace was short-lived. The two didn't speak for the next five months.

Lin maintains that he wasn't challenging Kobe’s status or intelligence, but rather his effectiveness as a communicator.

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 17:  Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers points in the second quarter of Game Seven of the 2010 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics at Staples Center on June 17, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)

"I was only challenging him like, 'Hey, can you teach me in a way that's a little bit more effective for me to process?' It’s not like talking down to me. If you yelled at me and you're like, 'Yo, what are you doing? Get your head out your ***, lock in so we can win this game,' I believe that you believe in who I am, right? But if you're just talking down to me like you have zero respect for me, that hits me differently. That 'I can't stand you' type of energy was what kind of messed with me."

For a guy who claims he has "let it go," Lin’s detailed account could be interpreted as lingering bitterness. Yet, he is quick to acknowledge the hierarchy of the NBA.

"I'm not disrespecting Kobe because I fully acknowledge that he's a thousand times the player that I am. But what I am saying is, even within the context of being a leader, in this specific situation, here's a little bit of feedback that I felt like you could handle differently.

"You're not perfect, right? Did he have to respect me with the magnitude and the level of player he was? No, not necessarily. I understand why he would look at me and be like, 'Yo, he's just not getting it done for us.' So, again, I don't hold it now to this day. I've let it go and me and him patched it up, but that was the concept."

Send us your thoughts: alejandro.avila@outkick.com / Follow along on X: @alejandroaveela