Los Angeles Lakers: Building the all-time Kobe Bryant teammate team

Kobe Bryant’s best small forward teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers: Glen Rice (1998-99)

Here we have another one of Kobe’s teammates from his earliest seasons in the career and there were a lot of candidates to play this small forward position. We could have went with the king of clutch shots, Robert Horry, or the king of name changes, Ron Artest/Metta World Peace/Metta Sandiford-Artest or even one of the best sixth men in team history, Lamar Odom.

Horry was great at hitting big shots but he was not that solid as an all-around contributor. Artest played with Kobe later in his career and the years with the Lakers were not as impressive as his prime years and while we could have cheated and used Odom at the three, he played the four almost exclusively for the Lakers.

That boiled it down to Glen Rice, who ironically was acquired by the Lakers when they traded Eddie Jones to Charlotte. Rice only spent two years with the Los Angeles Lakers but it is quite clear that those two years were among some of the best for small forward teammates of Kobe’s.

Rice’s first season in Los Angeles was his better one. He averaged more points, 17.5 per game, to go along with 3.7 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game.

Rice was a part of the team’s first championship season before being traded to the New York Knicks.

Rice never received the love that he deserved in Los Angeles because Jones was such a big fan-favorite, so most Laker fans probably would rather see someone else play on this all-time Kobe Bryant teammate team.

However, because of the season he had as well as there not being a great fit elsewhere, he makes the team.