Tuesday, January 31st, 2012 at 10:30 am  |  76 responses

Video: Kobe Bryant, Ricky Rubio Talk Smack About the Olympics


Marca.com captured this hilarious scene following the Lakers’ win in Minnesota on Sunday night, and Complex transcribed the back-and-forth between Ricky Rubio and Kobe Bryant:

Bryant: “You talking about London?” [to Rubio and Pau Gasol]

Gasol: “Oh yeah.”

Rubio: “You’re gonna be there?”

Bryant: “Yeah.”

Rubio: “You know you’re getting the silver medal. You know that.”

Bryant: “Shiiiiiiit! I’m taking bets. If I win, I get the keys of Barcelona.”

Rubio: “I bet what you want.”

Bryant: “I’ll take it!”

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  • Pais

    @Big D – Spain definitely has a legitimate roster, I saw all their games this summer and without question they’re a really good squad with years of experience playing together and brimming with confidence. But c’mon, this US team has come a long way, hats of to coach K for ‘building’ a real team. I don’t think you give the US enough credit. We’re talking about a bunch of guys who are the absolute best in the world at their respective positions (and not just in terms of athleticism). Guys who have had the time to mature and learn how to play alongside other stars.

  • http://Www.achtamsterdam.nl Phil

    I have been watching ball for 22 years…so, pretty long. I wasn’t talkiing in game. I was talking about in downtime. Iremember reading in bill simmons book about jim o’brien repramanding pierce not to talk shit to jordan, when jordan was in the front office with washington. Also ofcourse the washington bullets story with jordan smokey a stogy before the game asking the bullets players “who’s guarding me tonight” …plus a millilon other stories i have red about the fact that people were really scared of giving jordan fuel for his fire..i wich cases he had to make stuff up. Rubio didn’ t at all come across a bit scared or intimaded, he’s a freaking rookie!

  • ab40

    three steps arn’t allowed anywhere. The nba just doesn’t call it all the time for entertainmant purposes. Only the pivot rule is different. The traveling rule with the amount of steps taken is the same worldwide. Btw I like this looks like he’s fitting in well. Too bad half of LA will be all star starters I would love to see rubio throw lobs to real stars instead of tristin thompson if I write that correct.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    In addition to knowing almost all of Nas and Biggie’s lyrics, Kobe also watches The Wire.

  • Jerome

    @Canesta: travelling is lifting your pivot foot before dribbling and 1 1/2 steps after picking up your dribble. Worldwide … it just doesn’t get called in most places anymore … like carries. Eurostep is also a violation imo. It is esentially jumping twice.

  • Mike from Spain

    The US has so much more talent is ridiculous. But you can only field 5 players at a time, and Spain can hold out some time with the best 5. Of course, if superior talent doesn’t kill us (Spain) outright, the US depth will.

  • http://slamonline.com The Black Rick Kamla

    Can’t say with too much confidence that the US beats a Spain team with Pau, Marc, and Serge Ibaka in the front court….will be a tough task. I’m expecting USA to win gold, but I’d also be extremely impressed if they did

  • Mariano

    It’s funny because ever since I started watching basketball when I was living in Argentina, Americans have always been claiming it’d be an easy walk to the title, yet it never was, except in 2008… And 2008 wasn’t an easy walk either, Argentina had a chance to beat USA but we lost Manu 5-6 minutes into the 1st quarter(he was the tournament’s leading scorer), and even with a lopsided 1st quarter and horrible reffing against us(USA shot 36 FT’s compared to us I think it was either 16 or 18) we still managed to fight back and at one point the game got to maybe a 5 point lead, but then USA had a little run and managed to beat us by 20

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    @ Pais: Naismith was Canadian. End of story. I wasn’t aware there was even a debate.

  • Pais

    @Teddy – you never seen one of the ridiculous endless threads where Canadians claim the game through Naismith being Canadian and Americans claim it due to being the ones who made it great (and getting rid of the peach baskets). No? Just as well really, they quickly deteriorate into cultural bashing.

    @Mariano – US media and particularly the fans (less so these days) generally get carried away with an sense of entitlement with respect to basketball on the international scene. But the advantage other squads have always had is the fact that they are real teams that have had the benefit of playing with each other practically their whole lives. Largely due to the fact that their respective basketball communities are a heck of a lot smaller. The US program has recognized this and made a genuine attempt to keep the same core of players together. Another issue in the past for the US has been their inability to draw from the best of available players. A lot of guys until recently preferred to take a well deserved break following one of the longest and most arduous seasons in professional sports. This US team (barring injuries of course), is likely to field one of the deepest and most talented teams in the history of the game. They finally have the best players at each of their natural positions, and still retain versatility with guys who can play multiple positions. Strengthening the frontcourt with guys like Tyson Chandler and Lamarcus Aldridge along with the natural maturation of the core players will make a significant difference.

  • Mike From Spain

    I feel vicariously flattered when I read comments that say Spain is a legit threat. A team that can put CP3, Wade, Lebron, Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin together is scary enough. If you add a second unit with Rose, Kobe, Durant, Kevin Love and Tyson Chandler… hell, you don’t even have to try playing defense. Just play uptempo for 10 minutes, change to the second unit, repeat, score 130 points in 40 minutes and go home. It’s a wrap. My pride as a Spaniard would make me say we could probably hold out for a while with our first unit, but we don’t have nearly as much depth, I am afraid. Even if one scorer has a cold spell, there are so many other lethal threats, it’s like ‘choose your poison’.

  • Wane

    Kobe doesn’t say shiiiiiiit. HE says yes (Siiiiiiiiiiiii at spanish)

  • klaun

    those spaniards have got tons of chemistry and way more cojones than most of the us-boys. and whoever thinks d-rose/cp3 is more of a threat than navarro/rubio in a fiba game is a fool. same goes for the gasol bros and the us big men. the us advantage is having the better small forwards and more players on an elite level but spain is a legit contender. if spain is able to keep it close for 38 minutes i wouldnt bet too much money on team usa…if i had to pick either kobe or navarro for my last shot in the olympics i honestly don’t know if my choice would be the mamba. The typical american “we invented this game and our national title is called world championship so take a bow, rest of the world”-thing could easily cost them gold (you remember bron/durant/wade’s early celebrations in the past playoffs). some americans seem to be still living in the good old times where they had the dream team, an aaa rating and the whole world rooting for their team.

  • Dan

    @pais: doesnt matter where it was invented. look at england. football was invented there. do they ever win the world chip?

    n whats being us-citizan anyway? its either being an imigrant or being the descendant of an imigrant. except youre a native american and sitting bull is your great grand pa :D so thinking and talking in categories of nations or patriotism is simply stupid.

    what i just refered to, was what many people said above: that traveling thing is a slight disadvantage (never said this was decisive one. just one of many small factors) for the us team.

    on a fiba court they are even with spain. sure the us squad has more depth n more talent overall. that could just possibly be equalized by tactical brilliance of the spanish team.

    we all expect the us team to win gold. all im saying is that nobody should be too suprised or upset if spain would win that tournament.

    and btw, as some of the above said: there are no 3 steps allowed anywhere on the globe. you should know that b4 you start talking ;)

  • Wendy

    Rubio should shave. He looks like a homeless man.

  • Pais

    @Dan – tactical brilliance huh? No disrespect to Scariolo, but Spain’s success in past years is more due to Navarro and fielding a team loaded with very talented players who get to play in the NBA. Other contributing factors being the untimely demise of the Greek program, (ok maybe that’s a little unfair, they were decimated by injuries this past summer) and the dissolution of Yugoslavia (massively changes the landscape for European basketball).
    P.S. we’re saying the same thing regarding the irrelevance of where the game was invented.

  • Justin G.

    Dan needs to stop posting pronto. I’m getting embarassed for him. Of course people talked trash to MJ. Barkley did it but mostly in a friendly banter way, not in a “We’re gonna bust you up” way that Starks, Laimbeer or Rodman might have. Dumars never did. Bird admitted in his autobiography that he didn’t do a lot of trash talking to MJ after the 63 point game because, as others would soon realize, it was a bad idea to give him any motivation whatsoever. I highly doubt Stockton and Malone were talking smack to him either. That just wasn’t their game but guys like Stacy Augmon and Steve Smith would do it sometimes. Sometimes he would start the trash talking first hoping the guys would respond and that would get him going, and usually took the other guy out of their game. Then the game would be over and they’d see that Michael had put 35, 8, and 6 on them.

  • http://Www.achtamsterdam.nl Phil

    Thank you justin…my point exactly.

  • Pais

    @Klaun (is that pronounced like clown?) – Thinking that D.Rose/C.Paul is more of threat than Rubio(who’s not a starter) & Navarro in FIBA game (or lawn bowling for that matter) would not make anyone a fool. Did you see what Rose did to Rubio not so long ago? US learnt their lesson a while back, and they now approach the international game with the appropriate amount of respect. Your words may have held some merit a few years back but not any more. Marc Gasol and Navarro I’ve got a lot of respect for, and I’ll even concede that Pau plays a lot better and is more consistent for Spain than he is for the Lakers but it ain’t enough. Spain always got cojones whether it’s football or basketball but this ain’t the euro’s buddy.

  • LP

    thats what Vanessa said..: “SHieeeeeeeeet… I’ll take it. “

  • LA Huey

    Pais is the most level-headed poster in these comments. Folks are being silly if they think the US Teams of the early to mid-00s are the same as these Colangelo/Coach K directed squads.

  • Dan

    @LA: we will see that on the court. if the usa blows teams like spain off the court i will be impressed and also happy for them coz my sympathies are with team usa.
    its just that spains roster aint the worst on earth as well ;) theyd even make a damn good nba team with jose calderon, rubio, rudy fernandez, the two gasols and ibaka plus navarro. also some good none nba-ers on that roster.

  • LA Huey

    @Dan, We only come for Gold. You can keep your sympathies.

  • jazz

    @Justin and Phil: stop sucking jordan’s d**k. kobe and rubio know each other well, they work with each other a lot in nike europe. they’re not even talking trash.

  • Justin G.

    @jazz…you’re a moron. It’s not sucking someone’s d**k because you point out facts. We’re telling it like it was. Did you think maybe because we watched the games, saw the interviews, have seen other players from that generation talk about it that we know what we’re talking about? No, couldn’t be that. It’s just easier to pretend to be an internet tough guy and make ignorant comments. Way to go

  • SoCalHoopsFan

    Wow, lots of disinformation on this thread.

    Rubio and Kobe have a relationship. Before last season the Lakers went to Barcelona, they had a few practices. I remember that Rubio and Kobe did a public appearance together and played some street ball in front of some kids. After that Kobe said he thought Rubio would do great in the NBA, he spoke favorably about him several times before he came into the league.

    Phil, lots of players talked trash to MJ, you shouldn’t talk if you don’t know – makes you look dumb. I can remember one game for instance Gary Payton kept talking trash and walking around him for like the whole game. Just watch some of those old Bulls/Knicks and Bulls/Bad Boy Pistons games to educate yourself.

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