Kobe Bryant explains how Allen Iverson pushed him to become a stronger defender

Kobe Bryant has played in 17 All-Star games, winning the MVP of the game four times. He last won the award in 2011, with father time since catching up to him. But if anyone except the Lower Merion graduate walks away with the All-Star game MVP in tonight's game, it would be rather shocking being that it will be the 18th and final time that Bryant plays in the game. 

Bryant is one of the greatest scorers that the game has ever seen, but has also been named to the league's all-defensive first-team nine times. 

Bryant spoke to a group of reporters yesterday, which included Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated, and credited Sixers' great Allen Iverson with forcing him to become a better defender. 

Lakers' Kobe Bryant told me his favorite Allen Iverson memory, this 1999 game: https://t.co/kD2kU3KtRD pic.twitter.com/rIY7v6bsu2

— Ben Golliver (@BenGolliver) February 13, 2016

The game that Bryant is referencing in 1999 was a March game that the Sixers won 105-99 at what was then called the First Union Center. Bryant had 23 points and shot over 56 percent from the field that night, but that would pale in comparison to the 41-point, 10 assist night that Iverson had while Bryant was guarding him. 

The two met up in the NBA Finals just over two years later, and while statistically Bryant didn't fair any better against Iverson, the Lakers won the series 4-1, going 15-1 in the playoffs.

Coincidentally, the 2001 title was the second of three consecutive that the Lakers won, with the first coming in 1999-2000, the first year that Bryant was ever named to the league's first-team all-defensive team.

Also coincidentally, Shaquille O'Neal was the recipient of the league's Finals MVP awards for all three of these Lakers' titles, and he was named, along with Iverson, as a finalist for the 2016 class of the Basketball Hall of Fame last week.   

H/T Complex Sports

Tim Kelly (@TimKellySports) is an editorial assistant for Sixerdelphia.com.