Former Wizards Star Narrates How Kobe Bryant Inspired Him To Become a Coach

Whenever Kobe Bryant and Gilbert Arenas stepped on the court, there were bound to be fireworks. Both of them electrifying scorers and their rivalry was an added bonus to their matchups.

In a recent episode of No Chill Gil, Arenas revealed why started coaching in the first place. He said, “When I fell in love with basketball and then it’s you know it’s Kobe. And he is telling you ‘you should be coaching’ and you are like, ‘what?’

“You come to a game and you see a crowd over there and you ask what team is over there and you see, Kobe coaching a girls’ basketball team. You see week after week, Kobe’s coaching a team and I’m like well if he’s coaching a team what makes me think I am better than coaching.

He added, “I told him I don’t really want to deal with these parents. Why would you have to? That was his answer. Just the thought process after his passing I was like if he thought I was good enough to be a coach then I need to pursue it.

Arenas has always followed in his idol’s footsteps. Be it his motivation to become a mercurial scorer or now to coach a team, Kobe has played a big role in Agent Zero’s career.

The night when Gilbert Arenas dropped 60 points against Kobe Bryant & the Lakers

It was the 2005-06 season. Kobe Bryant and the Lakers faced off against Gilbert Arenas and the Wizards in the Staples center. Bryant and Arenas were one of the most prolific scorers that season, and the matchup looked pretty interesting.

Agent Zero was off to a great start, scoring 17 points in the first half itself. This gave the Wizards a healthy lead of 10 points for the Wizards going into the break.

The 3-time All-star continued his ridiculous scoring form, dropping 27 points in the second half. But Kobe and the Lakers had some other plans. They dominated the fourth quarter, and the game was to be decided in the overtime.

Arenas took over the game in OT as he dropped a record 16 points of the 21 points Wizards scored. Kobe unfortunately couldn’t keep up, scoring only 4 points as the Lakers lost 147-141 to the Wizards.

Hibachi scored a career high 60 points while Kobe also scored a respectable 45 points in that game. To this day, it remains as one of the best individual performances in the NBA.