Gilbert Arenas was one of the players of the league who called his career a bit too early. His career only lasted 10 years, but it wasn’t a slow and dull career. Arenas was one of the best scorers in the league during his prime. He had memorable performances versus big-time players.

Playing in the 2000s, Gilbert faced Kobe Bryant quite often. He played for the Washington Wizards for the majority of his career. Interestingly, he joined Washington the very season after Michael Jordan left. While he had a great time with the Wizards, he once challenged Kobe while he was in Disneyland.

 Kobe Bryant made fun of Arenas being a bench player

While one of Gilbert’s friends visited Disneyland, he found Kobe there and started trash-talking on his behalf. Arenas at the time was coming off the bench and Bryant knew that. Gilbert’s friend told Kobe that he would, “Kick his a**.”. Arenas did not expect his friend to say something like that to Kobe.

But Kobe’s response had Arenas accept the challenge. Kobe replied, “Well if he ever gets off the bench…”. At first, his response had Gilbert all excited as he couldn’t believe that Bryant knew who he was. From then on Arenas had to respond and he did.

Gilbert had his Adidas shoes colored the same as Kobe’s, just to play a mind game with him. His trash talk techniques wouldn’t work most of the time, but when they did, Arenas would go off.

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Gilbert dropped 60 points on Kobe Bryant

In December 2006, Gilbert played the best game of his career when he dropped 60 points on Kobe Bryant. The game went to overtime after Arenas missed the game-winner. But it wasn’t any problem as Gilbert handled the next five minutes perfectly.

This was one of the best duels in history. Kobe finished the game with 45 points, which weren’t enough for a win.

Only the skilled ones could challenge Bryant, while others faced his wrath. Like Michael Jordan, Kobe would also back up his trash talk on the court. While no one had expected Gilbert Arenas to outscore Kobe like that, he was just taking care of the challenge.

Which duel do you think was the most entertaining battle in NBA history? Do let us know in the comments.

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