Myles Turner shares the funny story of how he was booed against Kobe Bryant

In a recent podcast interview, Myles Turner recalled a funny story where his home fans booed him after beating Kobe Bryant and the Lakers in his rookie season.

• By
  
  Jacob Rudo
  

• in September 14, 2023 2:32 p.m.

The NBA careers of Myles Turner and Kobe Bryant overlapped for just one season, with the 2015-16 campaign being both the former’s rookie season and the latter’s final campaign. The two also played just once that season and Turner missed the first meeting between the two teams earlier in the year.

And yet, the lone matchup in Indianapolis was memorable for reasons both on and off the court.

Turner recently appeared in the run your race podcast and talked about his only game against Kobe, which actually turned out to be pretty exciting. A really bad Lakers team featuring Kobe in full retirement tour mode came to Indianapolis to play a Pacers team vying for a playoff spot.

The game played out as expected for much of the contest with the Pacers largely in control. Kobe, however, attempted to muster one last moment of magic and led a fourth-quarter comeback that was ultimately in vain as the Pacers earned an 89-87 victory.

As was the case for much of the 2015-16 season after they announced it would be their final season, the Lakers’ road games often resembled their home games. And, well, they weren’t too pleased when the Pacers didn’t let Kobe continue his storybook career with a late chapter.

To Turner’s credit, his recollection of the game is pretty accurate, which isn’t always the case with former teammates and opponents telling old Kobe stories. After watching this clip, I went and discovered the highlights of this game. It was a fun ending, even if Kobe struggled mightily in that game.

And be sure to stick around for the video after the highlights for Paul George to take a shot at his hometown fans.

After going 2-for-14 through the first three quarters, Kobe came alive in the fourth, or at least as much as he could at that stage of his career. He scored 11 points on 11 shots in the period and only made four shots.

However, all four of his makes came within a 1:45 span and three of them were 3-pointers to turn a 77-71 deficit into an 82-79 lead after the final 3-pointer. Unfortunately, 0-5 in the last two minutes of the game, a pretty fair microcosm of his abilities at that point in his career.

If nothing else, it’s a fun reason to remember Kobe’s last career and a funny story while also getting a chance to laugh at Paul George, a win-win scenario.

You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude.

Read more