See Kobe Bryant Perform Hilarious Steve Urkel Slam Poem on ‘Fallon’

Kobe Bryant was one of the fiercest competitors to ever play in the NBA. The Los Angeles Lakers legend who retired last year after winning five titles, one MVP and multiple trips to the All-Star Game was also one of the nastiest trash talkers of his generation. 

Now, it seems, Black Mamba is putting his linguistic skills to good use in his post-playing days. While he’s “only a phone call away” from letting his old team hire him for a position within the organization, maybe number 24 has another new career path in mind. 

Bryant went on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, clad in a black turtleneck, to perform an ode to Steve Urkel, the uber nerd from the hit 1990s sitcom Family Matters. And, to be honest, he did a really good job. Whether or not future hall of famer has any plans to release a chapbook of his work or maybe enroll in a writers’ workshop (Bryant went to the NBA straight out of high school, so getting his MFA would take some time), he didn’t really say. Bryant did keep the fun going by letting 13-year-old Sports Illustrated for Kids reporter Max Bonnstetter ask him a few questions. 

This isn’t the first time Bryant has flirted with poetry. When he announced his impending retirement on The Players’ Tribune in 2015, he did it in the form of a poem.