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Athlon Sports
Jalen Brunson's Hilarious Kobe Bryant Defensive Plan Is Going Viral
By Paolo Songco,
3 hours ago
Jalen Brunson is, without a doubt, one of the most explosive scoring guards in the NBA today. The All-Star point guard led the New York Knicks to a second-round berth in last season's playoffs behind averages of 28.7 points on 47.9 percent shooting, 3.6 rebounds and 6.7 assists, while also knocking down 2.7 triples per game on a 40.1 percent clip.
At the same time, however, it's no secret that Brunson isn't exactly a defensive gem. In fact, even the 27-year-old himself would be the first to accept his limitations on the defensive end.
Brunson was recently part of a panel that rewatched the late, great Kobe Bryant's legendary 81-point performance against the Toronto Raptors on January 22, 2006. When Brunson was asked what he would have done to try and stop the Los Angeles Lakers icon, the former got brutally honest with his response.
"How would I stop Kobe?" Brunson said. "Me, personally, I would call timeout and tell coach to put someone else on him. Yeah, I know my limitations for sure."
It's not that Brunson is an absolute liability on the defensive end. However, this is Kobe Bryant we're talking about here. To this day, his 81-point explosion remains the second-highest scoring output by any player in the history of the NBA, second only to Wilt Chamberlain's 100-point performance back in 1962.
Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant (24) shoots a free throw during the game against the Grizzlies in 2013.
Spruce Derden-USA TODAY Sports
For his part, Brunson's hilariously transparent response quickly went viral. As of writing, the video has already garnered close to 100,000 views.
As one of the comments on the post said, Brunson's strategy "still won't work." After seeing Jalen Rose, a notable lockdown defender during his time, get absolutely cooked by Kobe that night, it would be hard to argue against that statement.
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