Gilbert Arenas Calls Out Fans for Disrespecting Kobe Bryant: “..When He Was Alive”

Gilbert Arenas has long said Kobe Bryant treated his sneakers as something players had to earn. He told teammates to take the shoes off if they weren't playing well enough to wear them.

Now that Kobes are all over the league and the streets, Arenas noticed who wasn't wearing them back then.

"This is a pet peeve of mine. Everybody got the motherf**king Kobes on out here, but they couldn't wear them sh**s when he was alive and playing," Arenas said.

The former Wizards guard didn't point to one group in the clip. His target was the wider crowd that embraced Bryant's footwear only after his death.

The timing gave his remark some weight. Nike took all ten spots among the NBA's most-worn sneakers in the 2025-26 regular season, and four of them were Kobe models. The Kobe 6 Protro finished first with 71,312 minutes of wear, nearly 45,000 more than the next closest shoe. The Kobe 5 Protro came second with 26,804 minutes.

The shoes are also part of everyday basketball culture. The Kobe 6 has become a staple for players ranging from Jalen Brunson to Caitlin Clark. Vanessa Bryant revealed seven new Kobe colorways in July, including an Eagles-themed Kobe 5 Protro.

That popularity is what Arenas reacted to, and it tied back to what he had said earlier about how Bryant viewed his own shoes.

Gilbert Arenas Has Long Said Kobe Bryant Guarded Who Wore His Shoes

Arenas has told this story before. During a 2022 appearance on I Am Athlete, he recalled Bryant telling teammates they didn't deserve to wear Kobe's. According to Arenas, Bryant told the players they weren't "balling like that" and ordered them to take off their shoes.

Arenas also said the Mamba Mentality wasn't popular with everyone in the league at the time, and that Bryant's intensity wasn't built to win friends. Read that way, his new complaint is about more than footwear. It is about people who embrace a legacy they once kept at arm's length.

Shoes were a recurring theme in Arenas' Bryant stories. On his No Chill podcast, Arenas said Michael Jordan once told a young Bryant, then wearing Jordan 8s, "you ain't gonna never fill 'em." According to Arenas, Bryant was so angry he went nearly two weeks without speaking to his teammates, then scored 55 points on Jordan's Wizards.

Bryant had a rule about who earned the right to wear his shoes, and the people wearing them now were not the ones who earned that right while he was playing. The shoes are everywhere, and Arenas' point is that many of the people lacing them up came late.

Whether fans agree with him or think he's overreaching, the contrast between how the shoes are treated now and the standard Bryant demanded is clear.