{"id":62888,"date":"2018-04-12T07:55:35","date_gmt":"2018-04-12T07:55:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/?p=62888"},"modified":"2018-04-12T07:55:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-12T07:55:35","slug":"kobe-bryant-floored-by-lakers-rookie-andre-ingrams-debut-are-you-kidding-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/kobe-bryant-floored-by-lakers-rookie-andre-ingrams-debut-are-you-kidding-me.html","title":{"rendered":"Kobe Bryant floored by Lakers&#8217; rookie Andre Ingram&#8217;s debut: &#8216;Are you kidding me?&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-size: 18pt\"><strong><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;color: #000000\">Kobe Bryant floored by Lakers&#8217; rookie Andre Ingram&#8217;s debut: &#8216;Are you kidding me?&#8217;<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">If anybody knows what it feels like to have a special night at Staples Center, it\u2019s Kobe Bryant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">So when the retired Lakers legend joined Andre Ingram\u2019s chorus of the inspired on Tuesday night, tweeting \u201cLOVE IT\u201d to his 13.9 million followers while attaching a video of the 32-year-old\u2019s NBA debut that was a decade in the making, it brought the story full circle in a surreal kind of way.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Ingram is basketball\u2019s answer to Moonlight Graham, the baseball player immortalized in \u201cField of Dreams\u201d who spent years chasing a dream in the minor leagues only to get his one shot in the pros. Not only did Ingram get called up on Tuesday after spending 10 years playing in the NBA\u2019s Development League, but he answered the call by scoring 19 points against the best team in the league, the Houston Rockets, while hitting six of eight shots (including four of five three-pointers).<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">And for Bryant, who has gone from Hall of Fame player to Oscar winner in short order after his animated short, \u201cDear Basketball,\u201d won the honor last month, it\u2019s the kind of Hollywood script that you simply can\u2019t make up.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">\u201cIt&#8217;s a gorgeous story,\u201d Bryant, who is airing a new ESPN show called \u201cDetail\u201d that debuts on Thursday and will run throughout the playoffs, told USA TODAY Sports on Wednesday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Good enough for Bryant, who is in the process of building his own film studio, to consider producing it as a movie?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">\u201cYeah, maybe,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cWho the hell knows, right?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">Ingram\u2019s path has all the elements you need for a good show on the silver screen. When he wasn\u2019t making $19,000 a year in the minor leagues, the Richmond, Va. native, well, moonlighted as a math tutor as a way to make extra money while also caring for his wife and young daughter. Along the way, he became the most prolific three-point shooter in the history of what is now called the G-League (713 over 10 years, including a mark of 55% from beyond the arc last season). When the Lakers suffered late-season injuries and needed another capable body for the final few games of their season, Ingram finally got the call.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 14pt;color: #000000\">\u201cDude, (the story is) ridiculous. Like, are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? I mean to have the courage and resolve to stick with that dream, and to now get your shot and to come through in that way? I mean, that&#8217;s impressive, man.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size: 8pt\">Source:-\u00a0https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/nba\/2018\/04\/11\/kobe-bryant-lakers-rookie-andre-ingram-you-kidding-me\/508119002\/<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-background-color\">\n\t\t\t  <div \n\t\t\t  \tclass = \"fb-comments\" \n\t\t\t  \tdata-href = \"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/sports\/kobe-bryant-floored-by-lakers-rookie-andre-ingrams-debut-are-you-kidding-me.html\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-numposts = \"10\"\n\t\t\t  \tdata-lazy = \"true\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-colorscheme = \"light\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-order-by = \"social\"\n\t\t\t\tdata-mobile=true>\n\t\t\t  <\/div><\/div>\n\t\t  <style>\n\t\t    .fb-background-color {\n\t\t\t\tbackground: #ffffff !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t.fb_iframe_widget_fluid_desktop iframe {\n\t\t\t    width: 630px !important;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t  <\/style>\n\t\t  ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kobe Bryant floored by Lakers&#8217; rookie Andre Ingram&#8217;s debut: &#8216;Are you kidding me?&#8217; If anybody knows what it feels like to have a special night at Staples Center, it\u2019s Kobe Bryant. So when the retired Lakers legend joined Andre Ingram\u2019s chorus of the inspired on Tuesday night, tweeting \u201cLOVE IT\u201d [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":62889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[130710,110916,2038,110907],"class_list":["post-62888","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-kobe-bryant-floored-by-lakers-rookie-andre-ingrams-debut-are-you-kidding-me","tag-sports-breaking-news","tag-sports-news-headlines","tag-usa-today-sports-weekly"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biphoo.com\/bipnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}