Kobe Bryant Wants Teammates to Avoid Jimmy Goldstein

Jimmy Goldstein, the so-called “NBA super-fan” has attended a myriad of games, and to him playoff time is the best stretch of the year. Jimmy Goldstein has sat court-side at a plethora of NBA games and many players have seen and spoken to the fan.

However, some players are not quite fond of Goldstein, including Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant. Goldstein has admitted that he roots against the Lakers and Kobe takes exception to such hatred.

“The Lakers players are all aware that I root for the other team. With the exception of Kobe, they seem to take it pretty well,” Goldstein said. “During the All-Star Weekend a couple years ago, when I ran into him [Pau Gasol] and he wasn’t putting on his ‘Laker face’ so to speak, he gave me a big hug and apologized for not being friendly to me at the games, but told me that it was because Kobe asked him not to be friendly to me.”

Kobe clearly would like to avoid Goldstein as much as possible and he wants his teammates to do the same. Andrew Bynum has not spoken to Goldstein since joining the Lakers, which could be due to Kobe’s desire to ignore him or to keep his teammates focused on basketball.