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There was an incident at one point during the Dallas Mavericks-Los Angeles Lakers contest Sunday night where a Lakers fan talked so much trash to Luka Doncic, he actually acknowledged the fan.
That fan? Kobe Bryant.
Kobe was heckling Luka so he turned around and dapped him up pic.twitter.com/TASYCSness
— ESPN (@espn) December 30, 2019
Once Luka realized who it was he smiled and shook Kobe’s hand. The two actually know each other as Doncic spent some amount of time with Kobe in August of 2018 and was so pleased he posted a photo on twitter, much to the chagrin of Maverick fans everywhere.
#mambamentality pic.twitter.com/iKlKEjHv3Q
— Luka Doncic (@luka7doncic) August 30, 2018
But the story actually gets better. Not only did Kobe talk trash to Luka, he did so in Luka’s first language, Slovenian.
Mavericks’ Luka Doncic on meeting w/ Lakers legend Kobe Bryant: “He was talking Slovenian. He was talking my language. I was really surprised.” pic.twitter.com/IE9sLtZ2TZ
— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) December 30, 2019
Both Luka and Kobe are fairly well known for their respective mastery of multiple languages. That Kobe Bryant went out of his way to master enough Slovenian to get Luka’s attention on a sideline out-of-bounds play is objectively funny. Bryant was at the game with his eldest daughter Natalia Bryant, who took a photo with Doncic following the contest.