On his podcast "The Jalen Rose Show" on Grantland.com, former NBA star and ESPN analyst Jalen Rose admitted he broke one of basketball's supposedly unwritten rules.
Rose sat down with David Jacoby and discussed a range of issues, most notably being how Rose possibly tried to injure Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant on purpose during the 2000 NBA finals.
Rose described the act of sticking your foot under a shooter is basketball's "No. 1 unwritten rule."
"NBA Finals, 2000," Rose says. "[Kobe] goes up for a jump shot on the right wing, I contest the jump shot, Kobe lands on my foot. He hobbles off, and he actually misses the next game. Now, if it was up to me? If it was up to me? He should've just missed the whole series. I would have had a championship ring, and it'd be no harm, no foul."
In game 2 of the series, after the Lakers won game 1 by 17 points, the game was close when Bryant received a pass on the wing and put up a shot.
When he came down Rose's leg clearly stuck out under him and Bryant collapsed to the court in pain. He only ended up playing nine minutes in the game, although the Lakers still prevailed, winning 102-96 and taking a 2-0 series lead.
Bryant then had to sit out game 3 due to the injury, which the Pacers won 100-91.
While Rose didn't explicitly say he was trying to hurt Bryant, he also didn't say he wasn't.
"Did you purposely put your foot underneath him when he landed?" asked Jacoby. "Don't lie to me. Jalen, don't lie to the people."
"... I think I did it on purpose," Rose responded.
"You think you did it on purpose? You won't even cop to it?" Jacoby responds. "You won't even say, 'Yes, I did it.' 'I think?'"
"I can't say that it was an accident." Rose said timidly.
Later in the interview Rose went into his thoughts on karma, and the possibly bad dose of it he received due to his actions.
Rose was a member of the Toronto Raptors in 2006 when Bryant scored 81 points in a game, the second-most in NBA history to Wilt Chamberlain's 100.
"That was my payback for dealing with the Black Mamba," said Rose.
Jacoby also asked about the relationship between the two presently, which is known to be amicable.
"How has that not soured your relationship with him now?" Jacoby asks. "Because I know you guys are cool."
"He never knew I did it on purpose. But now he does."
Rose already paid for his mistake with some bad karma, but is there some more in store the next time he sees his old pal Kobe? Only time will tell.
For the record, Bryant has five championship rings to Rose's zero. That might be karma in itself.
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