Watch: Tyronn Lue Tells Kobe Bryant 1-on-1 Story

As Lue and many others have outlined, Kobe was just a different animal and spent every day relentlessly trying to be the absolute best and proving that on a regular basis. For Bryant to even want to play 1-on-1 with one hand, his off-hand no less as his right hand was broken, just shows the level that he was at and the work he was willing to put in to get to an even higher level.

Lue describing how Kobe would challenge new players to 1-on-1 just to establish that the Lakers were his team was important to him. Especially being so young, many veterans may not have wanted to fall behind, but Bryant was not gonna leave any doubt as to who the superior player was.

For Lue, who was also very young in his career, being able to play and practice against Kobe only allowed for him to improve his game that much more and led to a long playing career, before finding even more success as a head coach.

Sasha Vujacic recalls wars with Kobe Bryant at Lakers practice

Another player who had plenty of 1-on-1 meetings and battles at practice with Lakers icon Kobe Bryant is guard Sasha Vujacic who, like Lue, played a role on a pair of Lakers championship teams. Vujacic joined the Lakers in 2004 and won championships alongside Bryant in 2009 and 2010 and the guard recently recalled the battles that he and Kobe used to have in practice along the way.