Kobe Bryant Hisses Like A Snake When On Court, Says Jordan Crawford

Kobe Bryant hisses like a snake when he wants his teammates to pass him the ball.

That’s according to Washington Wizards shooting guard Jordan Crawford, who shared this amusing nugget on the most recent edition of ESPN‘s “Dan LeBatard Is Highly Questionable” show.

LeBatard asked Crawford about the first time he encountered L.A. Lakers star and Sex and the City fan Bryant on a basketball court and ended up with a pretty excellent Kobe anecdote:

LeBatard: “Can you give me a time that you were on the court, on a professional basketball court, and you looked to your right or your left and said, ‘I can’t believe I’m up here with this guy?’ ”

Crawford: “I did it with two people. I did with Vince Carter my rookie year. I couldn’t believe I was playing him, I was checking him. And then Kobe, of course. When I first played with Kobe, I was hearing — like, they call him ‘The Black Mamba’ — and then he was doing, like, the little snake sounds when he wanted the ball. (laughs) It was crazy. It was crazy. It was crazy. So, them two moments.”

LeBatard: “Wait a minute – what was this sound? He was calling for the ball by making a snake sound?”

Crawford: “Yeah, it’s like, tssss, tssss. It’s like, ‘Fish, Fish, Fisher – tsssss, tssss.’ He’d do that. (laughs) And it’s like, they call him, they say – like, everybody tells you he’s gonna do it before you play him. Like, ‘Wait ’til you hear him do this.’ And then he does it, and it’s like, ‘What?’ Like he’s really a mamba.”

Why do you think Kobe Bryant hisses like a snake on court? A mind game to distract his opponents, a habit from his early years, or is he actually part-reptile? Opinions below please, folks.

Also, this clip is the closest footage related to Kobe’s hissing I could find: