Former Lakers big man Samaki Walker claims Kobe Bryant punched him in the face over a $100 debt
Back in the glory days of the Los Angeles Lakers, the beef that many fans remember is the infamous one between Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. However, one beef that was largely swept under the rug was a 2002 ordeal between Kobe and Samaki Walker that left Walker with a black eye.
There was minimal coverage about the incident at the time considering that a Lakers player had a black eye and something had to be said, but then head coach Phil Jackson made it seem like it was nothing as he said it was an “isolated incident” and that it wasn’t “of any importance.”
Apparently those are the things that a coach says when one of his stars punches a role player in the face over a trivial debt.
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Walker was on the Brown and Scoop podcast under CBS Radio’s Play.it network recently and he offered all of the details about the incident, saying that it all boiled down to Kobe “sucker punching” him in the face over the fact that Walker owed him $100.
As Walker tells it, the Lakers held a halfcourt shooting contest at practice with the rules being that every player had to pay the winner $100 within 48 hours. Kobe won the contest one day and, before the 48 hours was up, he confronted Walker randomly on the bus asking where his money was. As they were on the way to shootaround when Kobe came up to him, Walker told Bryant he didn’t have the money, which is when the Black Mamba struck with a sucker punch right in Walker’s eye.
Walker then describes the incident as “all hell breaking loose” on the bus and chalked the whole thing up to a manifestation of Kobe’s frustrations on and off the court at the time. The whole interview can be heard here (this story starts just after the 7:00 mark):
Considering what we know about Kobe Bryant and the way he leads, this really shouldn’t be all that surprising. If this is the first time that he’s punched a teammate in the face, I’d be shocked—though the incident with Walker being over a small $100 debt makes this instance stand out a bit more.
Apparently everyone worked out things after Kobe punched Walker in the eye as the Lakers went on to win their third consecutive NBA Championship in 2002. Still, that doesn’t make this story any less strange.