When Justin Met Kobe: Scooter Tells of The Bieb’s Bond With the Black Mamba

Posted by Andrew Unterberger on 06/22/2012 at 9:19 AM News

The Popdust Files: justin bieber, kobe bryant, Scooter Braun

It’s hard to imagine, but there was a moment a couple years ago when Justin Bieber almost gave it all up. Manager Scooter Braun tells MTV that there was a concert that Bieber did in Orlando, where he was being difficult before the show. Scooter asked him what was going on with him once the gig had ended, and The Bieb told him that he just couldn’t go on like this. “‘I can’t go outside. I can’t go anywhere … I feel like a spectacle all the time,’” Scooter remembers Justin telling him. “You got to remember he didn’t want to be a star: I found him, and it happened.” The heart to heart continued, until Bieber presented Braun with a request: “I want to meet Kobe Bryant.”

Why the L.A. Lakers star? Scooter remembers Justin’s explanation:

I just feel like no matter what Kobe does, he’ll always be chasing Michael Jordan’s ghost, and someone the other day told me I could grow up in front of the entire world like Michael [Jackson] did, and I just want to know how you handle always chasing someone’s ghost that you’ll just never going to be able to catch.

Heavy stuff for a 16-year-old, but it makes sense—tough being so young and already being measured up against the greatest to ever do it. Eventually, the encounter actually happened between Justin and Kobe. “They had a pretty intense conversation and something that I think Justin will never forget,” relates Braun. Was somebody taping it? Somebody must have been taping it. We can’t wait for the NBA TV special in a half-decade.

[MTV News]

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