Antawn Jamison Says Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard Lacked Trust

Now that he’s an LA Clipper, former Laker Antawn Jamison can speak freely about the disaster that was the Kobe/Dwight duo. Jamison thinks Howard and Bryant, despite being great players, simply failed to develop the required trust to make their short-lived partnership work. Per ESPN: “I would never count Kobe Bryant out of anything,’ Jamison said Friday. ‘I’ve played with some special players. Gilbert Arenas when he was [in Washington D.C], at the top of his game, LeBron James, Shaquille O’Neal [in Cleveland]. I’ve played with a lot but never played with an individual player who had the type of mindset, the drive that he has. If [Bryant] says he’s going to win a sixth ring, believe me, he’s going to do everything possible to get that ring. Of course, on the outside looking in you could say, well, that might not happen this year or whatever with him coming off the injury and the Lakers trying to get things together. But I mean, that guy, he’s going to do everything possible to get that sixth ring.’ […] What Jamison never figured out though, was why the relationship between Bryant and Howard never developed on the court. ‘It was difficult,’ he said. ‘I really believed before we got started that those two could co-exist. But it just didn’t work out that way. Both guys are unbelievable basketball players, the best we have in the game right now. But for whatever reason we just couldn’t get that relationship as far as them communicating and them trusting each other the way you needed them to trust each other in order for us to win a championship. It just didn’t happen that way.'”