Kobe Bryant called his iconic dunk on Ben Wallace before it happened
Throughout his storied 20-year NBA career, late Los Angeles Lakers great Kobe Bryant had countless highlight plays, which included some iconic poster dunks. They have become fused together over the years to form the legend and icon everyone remembers him as.
One of Bryant’s most iconic and earth-shattering jams came during the 1997-98 exhibition season. The Lakers were playing the Washington Wizards, and Bryant hit his defender with a crossover before posterizing big man Ben Wallace, who, like Bryant, was entering his second season.
It was a vicious and embarrassing play and no one who witnessed it live or has seen the clip of it will ever forget it.
Kobe never took it easy on his opponents. Even at 19 🐍😮
(via @Lakers) pic.twitter.com/GKSgtnEWS3
— ESPN (@espn) March 28, 2020
Teammate Nick Van Exel said during an appearance on the “Knuckleheads” podcast that Bryant told the team he was going to do exactly what he did to Wallace before he did it.
“That’s another thing, Kob told us coming out of the timeout. Del [Harris] drew up a play for them to give him an iso at the top of the key, and Kob told us, ‘I’m about to cross this fool up and dunk on him.’ That was his exact words leaving the huddle, ‘I’m about to cross this fool up and dunk on him.'”
Several years later, Wallace would get the last laugh when, as a member of the Detroit Pistons, he would win an NBA championship at Bryant’s expense. But his moment of humiliation at the hands of the Lakers legend will always be frozen in time.
