While Kobe Bryant will forever be mentioned with and compared to Michael Jordan and LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers legend had other memorable matchups during his 20-year career. Among them were games against Vince Carter, Allen Iverson and Tracy McGrady, among others.
In terms of Iverson, Bryant memorably used the prolific scoring guard as motivation to improve defensively. During their rookie seasons in 1996, Iverson had 41 points and 10 assists against the Lakers.
Bryant was determined from that point forward to be a better defender and he went out studying Iverson’s offensive repertoire. That paid off in 2000 when Bryant was put on Iverson for the second half of a game and shut him out.