Smush Parker Discusses Kobe Bryant Not Speaking To Him While Teammates

"You can't talk to me, you need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me," Smush recalls Kobe telling him.

During a recent interview, a former Los Angeles Lakers teammate of Kobe Bryant’s expressed that the legendary player refused to hold conversations with him while playing on the same team with him for two years.

Former NBA point guard William Henry “Smush” Parker was recently on the podcast “Pablo Torre Finds Out.” Their conversation led to the discussion of Kobe not having any respect for Smush while they played together.

Smush and Kobe played for two years, and Smush stated that Kobe never spoke to him, even though he was the team’s starting guard. They even had their lockers side by side, and it still didn’t merit any discussions between the men.

At one point it was widely reported that Kobe referred to Smush as “the worst.” He even lamented that Smush “shouldn’t have been in the NBA” and that the Lakers at the time “were too cheap to pay for a point guard. We let him walk on.”

Torre brought that conversation up to Smush, who replied, “The man never spoke to me. I wasn’t the 12th man on the bench. I wasn’t the call-up from the G League who was just filling a roster spot. I started with this man. I was his co-worker. Like, we shared a cubicle side by side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold a conversation?”

It was reported in the past that Kobe had no love for Smush, who is now trying to become an NBA referee. He also recalled a time when he tried to stir up a conversation with Kobe and was shut down immediately.

“He looked at me, honestly looked at me and said, ‘You can’t talk to me, you need more accolades under your belt before you come talk to me,'” Smush remembered. “He was dead serious.

“So that set the tone. Never spoke to him again, or tried to, for two years—as the starting point guard.”

Smush Parker explains his side of his feud with Kobe Bryant:

“The man never spoke to me. … I started with this man, I was his co-worker. Like we shared a cubicle side-by-side. How do you do that for two seasons and never hold a conversation? … I’m not even going to get to… pic.twitter.com/3mnazvKPoA

— Pablo Torre Finds Out (@pablofindsout) December 19, 2023

Here’s the full interview:

While the two men were playing together, Smush started in 162 games with the Laker legend and averaged 11.5 points and 3.7 assists in 2005-06, and then 11.1 and 2.8 assists the next year in 2006-07.