TAKE it from Australian Boomers forward Glen Saville - NBA superstar Kobe Bryant is "a good bloke".
Saville returned to Wollongong on Tuesday with fond memories of Beijing.
The two-time Olympian will fly to Adelaide today to join his Hawks team-mates for tomorrow night's pre-season trial against the 36ers.
Yesterday the Mercury caught up with Saville to find out what it was like to take on the NBA's best players.
While Bryant's USA team-mates didn't win many friends on the way to winning the gold medal at Beijing, Saville said the famous Los Angeles Lakers guard left a lasting impression for all the right reasons.
"Without a shadow of a doubt, Kobe carried himself way above every other person on that team," he said.
"I'd heard and read stuff about him in the past, but he was a class act all the way through, even going back to when we played them at the pre-Olympic tournament in Shanghai.
"Most of the other guys on that team just acted like prima donnas. They just carried on like pork chops," he added.
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Kobe got that respect from International players.
