Jeremy Lin Shuts Down Nick Young’s Claim He Cried In Locker Room After Kobe Bryant Trash-Talk

Former NBA guard Jeremy Lin is pushing back on a long-circulating locker room story involving the late Kobe Bryant and a heated Los Angeles Lakers practice. Appearing on the Above the Rim podcast, Lin addressed claims made by former teammate Nick Young that he once broke down in tears from Bryant’s trash-talk following a scrimmage during their time with the Lakers. "Swaggy, I love you, but that's NOT true," Lin said, directly responding to Young's version of the story. Young had previously described a tense practice where Bryant aggressively criticized teammates after a scrimmage loss, the same infamous session where the Lakers legend reportedly called the team "soft like Charmin." In Young's retelling, Lin was overwhelmed by Bryant's comments and began crying in the locker room. Lin now says that never happened. Instead, he recalled that after Bryant talked trash following the scrimmage, he immediately went to head coach Byron Scott with a simple request: Run it back. "Right after that happened we huddled up," Lin explained. "I went immediately to Coach Byron Scott and I said … 'Coach, let's go again. Let's get another one. According to Lin, Scott briefly considered the idea before declining because the team had a game the following day. "And I was like, 'All right, cool,' and that was the end of the story,” Lin said. Lin emphasized that Young's account of events doesn't make sense given the competitive environment in an NBA locker room. "Can you imagine that happening?" Lin said. "We talk trash every day in practice, and then one time I just start breaking down in tears? My teammates would never respect me." He added jokingly that if the story were true, the consequences would have been immediate. "I would've been traded the next day,“ he said. Lin made it clear there's no bad blood between him and Young, saying he still has respect for his former teammate.

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