If you ever wondered what it was really like to be teammates with Kobe Bryant, former Laker Earl Clark has the perfect snapshot—one that includes flipped tables, cursing, and a whole lot of grit.
During the 2012-13 NBA season, Kobe wasn’t just the star of the Los Angeles Lakers—he was the team’s emotional epicenter. A walking embodiment of intensity. The kind of guy who could literally end a practice mid-drill just because his squad lost a few scrimmage games.
But don’t get it twisted—this wasn’t diva behavior. This was Kobe being Kobe.
🔥 Practice with the Mamba? Not for the Faint of Heart
Earl Clark, a forward who played that single season with the Lakers, recently sat down with Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson and dropped a behind-the-scenes gem. The tale? A fiery Kobe outburst that showed just how badly the Black Mamba wanted to win—even when the scoreboard didn’t matter.
“I mean, every day we competed in practice, you know?” Clark recalled. “I was on the White Team with me, [Devin] Ebanks, Jordan Hill… and they’re coming off back-to-back championships, but we didn’t care about that. We were trying to earn minutes!”
That hunger fueled some wild moments in practice. One time, Clark’s squad beat Kobe’s team during a scrimmage and dared to talk some smack.
Big mistake.
“He just flipped, bro! He ended practice, flipped the table, and told everybody on his team, ‘We gotta tighten up! We can’t get better like this!’ And he just left.”
Let that sink in: Kobe Bryant was so furious about practice that he shut it down himself. Allen Iverson might have ranted, “We talkin’ about practice,” but for Kobe? Practice was war.
🐍 What Made Kobe… Kobe
The media often painted Bryant as a “difficult” teammate, but Clark wants people to understand the context. That fiery demeanor? It wasn’t about ego—it was about holding everyone to the same sky-high standards he demanded of himself.
"That’s the thing that people get misunderstood about Kobe," Clark explained. "I’ve never been around Kobe where he’s been like, a super jerk or talked down to his teammates. What he doesn’t like is soft guys."
It wasn’t about being nice. It was about being ready to scrap when the game was on the line. Kobe wanted to know who the dogs were. He wanted to see which teammates wouldn’t fold under pressure. If you shrank in practice, he didn’t trust you come game time.
“He gets on you and you shy away and curl up, he’s not really going to trust you in basketball games,” Clark said. “He wants to see who the dogs are.”
💥 Inside the Dysfunctional 2012-13 Lakers Season
Now, to really appreciate the madness of these practice tales, you’ve got to understand the chaos that was the Lakers' 2012-13 season.
This was supposed to be a superteam—a dream scenario that paired Bryant with two future Hall of Famers: Steve Nash and Dwight Howard. The team was stacked on paper. Expectations? Sky-high.
Reality? A complete mess.
Nash never truly recovered from a leg injury that plagued his season. Dwight Howard, still battling back from back surgery, didn’t quite mesh with Kobe’s intense approach to leadership. There were chemistry issues, defensive breakdowns, coaching changes, and an endless parade of injuries.
And yet—through all of it—Kobe was relentless. He willed that team to 45 wins despite the dysfunction. He played massive minutes down the stretch, practically dragging the Lakers into the playoffs with pure force of will. Until it all came crashing down.
💔 The Achilles That Changed Everything
April 12, 2013. The Lakers were clinging to playoff hopes when Kobe tore his Achilles against the Golden State Warriors. Just like that, the season was over for the Mamba—and the era was never quite the same again.
Kobe’s injury felt like the beginning of the end for that Lakers chapter. Without him, the team was swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the first round. The supposed “superteam” collapsed before it even had a chance to rise.
The aftermath was even worse. The Lakers missed the playoffs for the next six seasons, tumbling into one of the darkest periods in franchise history. It wasn’t until LeBron James arrived in 2018 and brought a championship two years later that the Lakers truly rebounded.
🎯 Kobe’s Leadership Wasn’t Always Comfortable—But It Was Always Real
Clark’s story might sound wild—table flipping and all—but it captures something essential about Kobe Bryant: his obsession with greatness.
He wasn’t trying to humiliate teammates. He was trying to prepare them. For the pressure. For the moment. For the playoffs. For life.
Even in a lost season, even when things looked bleak, Kobe showed up every day to demand more from the people around him. And if you couldn't handle it, you didn’t belong.
Was it tough love? Absolutely. But it was the kind of love that built champions.
📌 Key Takeaways from Earl Clark’s Mamba Memoir
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Practice was war: For Kobe, even scrimmages were must-win situations. There were no “off days.”
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Leadership wasn’t soft: Bryant’s standard was excellence, and he expected the same from everyone else.
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Intensity wasn’t personal: If you were soft, Kobe wouldn’t trust you. If you stood your ground, he respected you.
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2012-13 was chaos: Injuries, clashing personalities, and a failed superteam defined a rollercoaster season.
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Mamba mentality lived in practice: Behind closed doors, Kobe was molding warriors—even if it meant flipping a table or ending practice early.
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