NBA Hall of Famer, fifth on the all-time scoring list, and legendary small forward Kevin Durant spoke in an interview after his retirement about the three years he spent as Kobe's teammate—"I remember that every morning when I arrived at the gym, Kobe had already finished a round of training."
"Then he would drag me into one-on-one games. You have to understand, I was 2.10—no, 2.06 meters tall, yet Kobe always treated going one-on-one with me as a kind of fun."
"From those daily one-on-one games, I learned every skill I needed to survive in the NBA. Once I stepped onto the court, throughout the rest of my career, even after I tore my Achilles, no pressure my opponents gave me was ever as intense as Kobe's."
"Kobe taught me every quality a top scorer, a legendary player, needed."
"That championship I won with Kobe was the one I could never forget. That year, Kobe was like a god. To this day, basketball has continued to develop and improve, but I could never put on a performance like that, nor do I believe anyone in the league can recreate Kobe's legend..."
The 2008-09 season! The league entered the playoffs.
That season, Kobe put up 103 points, won the MVP, led the team to 68 wins, and finished first in the Western Conference!
Yao Ming made the All-NBA First Team for the first time!
The league's number one center! Yao Ming had climbed onto that throne for the first time.
He edged out the aging Shaquille O'Neal!
Prime Dwight Howard, putting up 20+14!
The versatile Jermaine O'Neal, averaging 21+10!
As for the other players, despite the Lakers taking first in the Western Conference, they received no honors at all.
Even Ginobili's Sixth Man of the Year was snatched away by Odom.