by Adam Figman | @afigman
Kobe Bryant has a pretty intense skill set. He can score the ball like few people in NBA history. He can motivate his teammates and push them beyond what they thought they were ever capable of, all by wanting to succeed so badly that those around him are thrown past their limits just by association. He can maintain and groom his talent well into his 30s, even refining aspects of his game that many thought had peaked years ago. He can win five Championships, two Finals MVPs, two scoring titles and one regular season MVP. He can continue to be the same beast while morphing into a different animal.
But who the hell knew he can predict the future?
According to Kevin Durant, the Lakers superstar really can do just that. About a month before the recent Dwight Howard trade went down, when KD and KB were together with Team USA, presumably at one of the squad’s many stops leading up to London, No. 24 made a set of predictions that somehow, magically, came true.
Via Yahoo! Sports:
Kobe Bryant isn’t one to mince words. His trash-talking style on the court is legendary and his sense of humor is as dry as it gets. So when Bryant told his Team USA teammates during Olympic training in early July that Dwight Howard would be traded to the Lakers, there were plenty of skeptics. Kevin Durant led Team USA in scoring during the Olympics. Howard had several suitors at that point, but Bryant’s prediction still stayed in the back ofKevin Durant’s mind. Bryant’s words eventually became reality as Howard was dealt to the Lakers from the Orlando Magic in a four-team blockbuster trade on Aug. 10. “Kobe called that a month before it happened,” Durant told Yahoo! Sports while promoting his new movie “Thunderstruck.” “I didn’t believe him. He was just like, ‘We are going to have Dwight. We are going to have Steve Nash.’ He just talks a lot of trash, jokes and laughs. But he said it. I don’t think anyone paid attention to it but me and him. He said it and it happened. And they got better, a lot better. “Dwight’s name was being thrown on every team. Houston, Brooklyn, the Lakers. But I guess he called it right.”
