Lakers rumors will be squashed here. Isaiah Rider wouldn’t have touched Kobe Bryant!
Let’s pay attention to the picture above. Those are trophies, right? This picture basically shows that Isaiah Rider was in no danger of accepting the $10,000 that Shaq “allegedly” offered. For the record, Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson said they would have taken the money (The writer could use that money too!) but anyone that says they would is lying.
Isaiah Rider had a wild ride through his NBA career, but he obviously knew where his career was at the time when O’Neal allegedly came with his proposal. Rider gave everyone the reason why he didn’t take the money in this statement.
"“But this is my thing: I would’ve been off that team so fast if I laid a hand on that man.”"
Case closed. There’s ten grand and there’s a roster spot on the defending NBA championship squad.
But he did try to play Kobe Bryant one on one. This story is laid out here.
Spoiler Alert: It didn’t work out for Rider and this might be the reason why he stunk up the court for the Lakers that year. He averaged only 7.6 points and even though Rider wanted to come back, the Lakers dropped him. Devean George and Greg Foster were placed on the playoff roster over him. Rider’s career extended ten games with the Denver Nuggets the next season and he was done.
But let’s assume that Rider had taken the challenge. Like Kobe would have really backed down. Like the dude got into a scuffle with Shaq in practice along with these incidents in actual games.
The notable players on this list should tell you enough.
- He got in Dwight Howard’s face and created one of his most famous memes calling Howard “soft”. Howard thanked him years later.
- He got into it with Ron Artest twice while he was in Houston. Artest turned into Metta World Peace as a Laker and beamed “Kobe passed me the ball!”.
- Matt Barnes, who is the star of the podcast that started all of this. His fake pass to Kobe’s face (Kobe didn’t flinch!!) is the example that many use to explain “Mamba Mentality” on the basketball court.
- Reggie Miller, who almost got killed by Michael Jordan. You tend to forget these things listening to him on TNT.
Lake Show Life thanks you for following us through this Lakers rumors fodder. Yes, folks, it’s a slow NBA news day and we are poking fun at times too. Sometimes situations from one player can open up other avenues that we don’t know about.
For the next month to six weeks, hopefully the podcast “All the Smoke” can bring out more old school stories. NBA writers need them these days.