Lakers: 12 Years Ago Today, Kobe Bryant Didn't Flinch

It's one of the great Kobe stories, and it went down 12 years ago today,

Kobe Bryant has a number of stories over the years that have become somewhat legendary. For a guy with so many big moments across his Lakers career, that comes as no surprise. 

This one from 12 years ago will always have the hearts of Lakers fans and Matt Barnes. It came during a game against the Orlando Magic when Barnes and Kobe were going at it all game long. 

Always the mind magician, Kobe did what he could to get into the head of Barnes. That resulted in a legendary moment that will be talked about for a very, very long time. And it's a very Kobe moment. 

12 years ago today, Kobe didn't even flinch 🐍

(via @NBATV)pic.twitter.com/DswXKP5KHH

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 7, 2022

Barnes spoke about that not flinching moment last year on a podcast. In his mind, he didn't even mean to fake the ball into Kobe's face.

“Like I’mma fight this dude because these punk-[expletive] refs aren’t calling nothing. So when the ball fake [expletive] happened, it wasn’t like I’m gonna fake the ball in his face. Literally, my arms just did it by themselves. I wanted to slam that [expletive] in his face. So I faked it, and then it kind of became what it did.”

Whatever happened, it will always go down as one of the most legendary moments off of an inbound play. It also ended up with Matt Barnes coming to Los Angeles, because anyone that can go toe-to-toe with Kobe is a guy that you want on your side.