“There isn’t anyone who can stop Kobe” – Scottie Pippen never believed Ruben Patterson’s ‘Kobe Stopper’ nickname a reality check

After his legendary run with the Chicago Bulls, Scottie Pippen moved on to the Houston Rockets, but that partnership lasted only one season. His next stop was Portland, where he joined a talented Trail Blazers team that had enough skill to contend but also plenty of personalities to manage.

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One of them was forward Ruben Patterson, who sold himself to the league and to the media as the “Kobe Stopper.” Ahead of the Blazers’ opening day showdown against Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers on October 30, 2002, Patterson boasted about being ready to guard Kobe after missing the Blazers’ last three preseason games with a sprained right ankle. Pippen had had enough.

“He needs to be done with that,” said Pippen. “There isn’t anyone who can stop Kobe.

Patterson took pride in being the ‘Kobe stopper’

Patterson was originally Kobe’s teammate, as the Lakers drafted him 31st overall in the 1998 NBA Draft. Although he ended up playing only 24 games for the Lakers, the L.A. Times wrote in 1999 that Ruben caught the Lakers’ attention because he claimed he regularly shut down Bryant in practice.

When he came to Portland, he boasted about his ability to guard Bryant and was always assigned to guard his former teammate when they played the Lakers. But although his teammates like

On opening night in 2002, Patterson did an admirable job, holding Kobe to 25 points on 18 shots as the Blazers picked up a 102-90 win over the Lakers. However, in his next five games against the ‘Kobe Stopper’, Bryant scored 33, 40, 36, 35 and 31 points. Kobe went on to average 29.3 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game in 26 games played against Patterson.

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Kobe thought it was just a business move by Patterson

While Bryant’s teammates like Robert Horry and Derek Fisher criticized and called out Patterson for false promotion, Kobe himself had nothing bad to say about Ruben. In fact, during an ESPN interview, he revealed that Patterson was only claiming himself as such to get a new contract and survive in the league.

Bryant even reached out to Patterson to ask him if he needed help in promoting himself.

” Well, I thought that was just a business decision for him. I even called Ruben; I said, ‘Ruben, if you needed me to come out and say, ‘Ruben Patterson plays the best defense on me out of anybody else in the league’, I would’ve said that for you. I would have helped you get a new contract. Just let me know,'” Bryant

To his credit, Patterson lasted 10 seasons in the NBA, playing 649 regular-season games and posting career averages of 10.7 points, 4.2 rebounds, and 1.2 steals per game. He also earned $36.8 million during his NBA career, the bulk of which came from a six-year, $33 million deal with the Blazers in 2001 when he was building the Kobe Stopper persona.

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This story was originally published September 20, 2026 at 9:04 AM.