During an exit interview with the media on Thursday, Nick Young talked about how amazing Kobe’s final game was. At one point, Young mentioned that Kobe, who was approached by a line of players waiting for his autograph, threw away Young’s pair of Adidas and fetched for some Nikes instead. (You can see his portion of the conference here, starting at 2:19:50 mark.)
Kobe Bryant threw Nick Young’s Adidas sneakers in the trash instead of signing them
Reporter: Were you allowed to have fun last night? I mean, you’re real serious right now, you know ... but last night, was that a fun night for you?
Young: Yeah, it was enjoyable. Nah, I think ... you know, I forgot about everything that was going on. I think the feeling was like we won a championship. They had the champagne bottles after. But yeah, it was great. The confetti, the five-minute intro he had, Kobe signing autographs -- We was all in line like we was fans, you know, in the locker room -- the fact that he threw my Adidas and didn’t sign my Adidas, I was a little disappointed in that. But ... he could not end without something like that, so ... I think he threw my shoes in the trash, but yeah, that’s Kobe for you.
Young didn’t come away empty-handed, though. Kobe eventually signed shoes for Young, but they were a pair of Nikes (aka the shoe brand he has a deal with), and Young’s son got to take a picture with him.
Young also got Kobe to sign the score sheet for his final game, but you know if there’d been an Adidas logo printed on that paper, Kobe probably would’ve ripped it up.
