Jalen Brunson shares a hilarious response on how he’d stop Kobe Bryant: "I’d tell coach to put someone else on him"

The Nike Air Time with hosts Jalen Brunson, Jamiersen Green, and Alexis Morgan debuted Thursday on the NBA App. The show celebrated the legendary career of Los Angeles Lakers icon Kobe Bryant for the first offering by watching his games and highlights.

While the group was enjoying Mamba's 81-point masterpiece against the Toronto Raptors in 2006, Morgan asked Brunson what he would do if tasked with guarding the Lakers' great. The New York Knicks All-Star's reply couldn't have been more perfect and hilarious.

"How would I stop Kobe?" Brunson responded. "Me personally, I would call timeout and tell coach to put someone else on him. I know my limitations, for sure."

Even that wouldn't have been enough to stop Kobe on this night, which ended in a comeback victory and the second-best single-game scoring performance of all time. The Black Mamba scored 55 in the second half alone, making 28 of 46 shots overall and going 18-for-20 at the charity stripe. Kobe was in a zone and said the performance "was something that just happened."

"You don't really think about it"

Interestingly, the 6-foot-2 point guard talked about being in a zone like Kobe did. Brunson scored at least 40 points 22 times in his career, including seven in the playoffs. In addition, the 2024 All-Star had two 50+ point games under his belt, including a 61-point outing against the Spurs on March 29, 2024.

"It's crazy because you don't really think about it. You're just going out and you're playing," Brunson explains. "It's never like, alright, I'm gonna flip a switch, I'm in a zone now. You just gradually get into it, and then all of a sudden, you're so locked in that nothing else matters."

JB mentioned how difficult it is to stop someone if he's in a zone and said it would take more than just one player to do that. On the night of Kobe's 81-point game, an entire squad couldn't do anything against an "in the zone" Mamba.

Best defensive players Kobe Bryant faced

In an interview with Ernie Johnson, Bryant mentioned three defenders that gave him the most trouble defensively. The first was Tony Allen, and then the names Bruce Bowen and Raja Bell also came up.

Funnily enough, Kobe did really well statistically against the trio he mentioned. According to StatMuse, Bryant averaged 29/5/4 against Bell, 26/5/4 against Allen, and 26/6/4 against Bowen. It takes a team to take down an offensive force like Kobe, and two NBA Finals losses were a testament to that. Despite getting his usual 20+ points, Bryant shot 38.1% from the field in 2004 and 40.5% in 2008.

Maybe that's just how great of a scorer Kobe Bryant was. Stopping him was never a one-man job, and his fiercest rivals knew they needed all hands on deck. Sometimes, he would just be in a zone and no amount of help could slow him down.

Related: Magic Johnson thinks Kobe would have been in GOAT talks if he was here today: “We know Kobe belonged in that conversation”