Caron Butler Shares His Most Memorable Moment Playing With Kobe Bryant

Here is the play that Butler was referring to, where Bryant sank a game-winner against the Charlotte Bobcats on March 12, 2005.

Classic Kobe right there to call his shot. His performance in the fourth quarter against the Bobcats on that night was typical of him too.

Bryant had struggled massively in the first three quarters, scoring just 11 points while going 4-12 from the field. Then, as he had done so many times in his career, he took over in the final quarter.

That shot gave Bryant 21 points in the fourth alone, as he led the Lakers to a 117-116 win. As for Butler, he had a fine showing too, recording 14 points, 7 rebounds, and 2 assists while going 6-8 from the field.

Caron Butler Revealed How Intense Kobe Bryant's Workouts Were

Butler was traded to the Lakers in 2004, as part of the package that the Miami Heat had put together for Shaquille O'Neal. Not long after he arrived, the forward realized just how different things were going to be for him playing alongside Bryant. Butler once explained how intense Kobe's workouts were.

"You go to Los Angeles and you see Kobe, he signs for $133, $134 million, and the second he signed the contract, he turned to the right, like, 'hey, hey, motherf***er, let's blackout.' That was his workouts. They're called 'blackouts.' And I was just like, 'ok, dope, when we doing that?' He's like, 'tomorrow, 7:00 AM black the f**k out. We about to black out.' I was like, 'oh, s**t.' I was like, 'I just came here for the a press conference. I had a suit. Let me get right. I'll be here.'

"We ended up going to work out. It was the reps of six or seven spots, where you're doing 20 makes and you go out, 20, 20, 20, 20, go around, go back. More game speed, and then you start working on the counters, and you work your way out to the perimeter.

"Then you got two guys that come on, they're defending like they're the defensive rotation. You go through that whole sh*t for like 90 minutes to two hours and then you lift weights. And we done. I'm like, 'all right.' He's like, 'yeah, come back at six.' I was like, alright, 6:00 AM?' He's like, 'no, 6:00 PM. Get something to eat, come back. We do this sh*t again. Get this sh*t again.' I was like, 'damn... like, that's different.'"

With that kind of work ethic, it was no surprise that Bryant became such an incredible player. Unfortunately for Butler, their time together was cut short when he was traded to the Washington Wizards after that 2004-05 season.