If there’s one person you’d be hard pressed to find anyone talking trash to it’s President Barack Obama. Unless, of course you’re Kobe Bryant. The NBA star recently opened up to Ellen Degeneres about shooting hoops with the Commander in Chief and engaging in a bit of harmless competitive banter, too.
“He talks a lot of trash,” Bryant says of Obama reports PEOPLE. “You know he’s from Chicago – the Bulls through and through. He always talks Bulls this, the Bulls that. I’m like, my goodness. Can I talk trash to the President?”
The LA Lakers shooting guard did admit that he fired back at President Obama, but it was all in fun. “Of course I did. I couldn’t help it,” admitted Bryant.
With a championship ring and an Olympic gold medal under his belt, going up against a player of Bryant’s caliber is enough to make anyone a bit intimidated, even if you are the president. Bryant says that despite his all-star hoop skills, he went a little easy on President Obama when they were on the court.
“The thing that’s interesting is that if he makes a nice move, you kind of catch yourself,” said Bryant. “I’m going to steal the ball from him. Then all the sudden, I start peeking around looking for the CIA. I say, you know, I should just let him go.”