Phil Jackson on the time Kobe Bryant stood up for Adam Morrison: 'That's when I was proudest of Kobe'

Jackson spoke about Kobe's tremendous leadership during his statue reveal on Thursday

Kobe Bryant's friends and family, as well as members of the Los Angeles Lakers organization and some NBA legends, gathered outside Cypto.com Arena on Thursday as the team unveiled a bronze statue to honor the late superstar.

The private ceremony's notable guests included Magic Johnson, Jerry West, Dwyane Wade, Candace Parker, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and some of Bryant's former teammates; Pau Gasol, Robert Horry, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher. Bryant's widow, Vanessa Bryant, spoke before the audience and introduced the 19-foot-tall statue that depicted Bryant walking off the court after he scored 81 points against the Toronto Raptors in 2006. 

As Vanessa, Fisher and others shared stories and spoke about the late Hall-of-Fame guard, Bryant's former head coach Phil Jackson recalled the time that he was the "proudest" of Bryant in an instance that involved Adam Morrison.

FULL SPEECH: Phil Jackson speaks at the Kobe Bryant statue unveiling pic.twitter.com/F9LEftuNh1

— Los Angeles Lakers (@Lakers) February 9, 2024

Near the end of Jackson's speech (10:18 mark), he referred to a time when some of the Lakers players, including Bryant, appeared on the Jimmy Kimmel Live show following their 2010 NBA title win over the Boston Celtics. Kimmel played a humorous clip of Morrison's "highlights" from that seven-game series against the Celtics, in which Morrison didn't play at all and was shown simply running to the championship celebration on the court in a full suit. End of clip.

Bryant admitted the video was funny but he was quick to stand up for Morrison, who was his teammate during the Lakers' back-to-back championships in 2009 and 2010.

"Adam can really play," Bryant said. "Like he can really, really, really go. And for him to take a step back and to do things like that really helped us get to that championship level."

Morrison, who was the third overall pick out of Gonzaga in the 2006 NBA Draft, respected Jackson as the greatest coach he ever played for during his four years in the NBA.

"He was the best at just managing personalities," Morrison said of Jackson on an episode of Talking Zags. "He just brings the tenor down a level because every place he's been at has [had] expectations. So he does a good job of bringing that anxiety down as a unit and then making guys work as a unit and then allowing people to be themselves."