Sometimes, the internet is an awesome place. For example: we now have a nearly 25-year-old video of a young <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/coach/mark-pope-132332/">Mark Pope</a> blocking an even younger <a href="https://www.on3.com/db/kobe-bryant-75522/">Kobe Bryant</a>.



What started as an homage to Pope’s playing days in the NBA through a simple thread on social media quickly turned into something none of us have likely ever seen before. <a href="https://x.com/rarerookies">@rarerookies</a> on X/Twitter posted a handful of old Pope photos from over two decades ago. Kentucky’s head coach was battling the likes of Michael Jordan, Kevin Garnett, Vince Carter, and many others during his stint (153 games played from 1997-2005) in the NBA. 



But one picture stood out above the rest: Pope, 29 at the time, defending the late Kobe Bryant, 23, on a post-up. One hoops junkie was actually able to find that exact play. It was from a preseason game between Pope’s Milwaukee Bucks and Bryant’s Los Angeles Lakers prior to the 2001-02 season. <a href="https://x.com/zak123_2025">@zak123_2025</a> discovered video of the moment, which is better than you’d think. In the middle of the first quarter, Pope actually blocks Bryant’s shot as Bryant attempted a tough one-legged runner in the middle of the paint. 



“Pope knocks it down his throat,” the announcer says. 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Had to jump through some hoops to get this. 10-25-2001 Preseason Here's the sequence that takes place where that picture was taken. Pope BLOCKS Kobe and the announcer says "Pope knocks it down his throat" Pretty awesome stuff! <a href="https://t.co/RNRqIEFIlD">pic.twitter.com/RNRqIEFIlD</a>— Zak (@zak123_2025) <a href="https://twitter.com/zak123_2025/status/1881722473349255623?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 21, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Unfortunately, stats are hard to come by for this random preseason game on Oct. 25, 2001. So we don’t know exactly how Pope performed throughout this game. But this was right in the middle of his two-year run with the Bucks, easily his best stretch as an NBA player. He averaged 2.4 points and 2.3 rebounds in 15 minutes per outing (63 games played) the season prior in 2000-01 before averaging 1.9 points and 1.6 rebounds in 9.5 minutes per contest in 2001-02 (45 games played).



Pope’s coaching career has panned out more favorably than his playing career, but he’ll always be able to say he blocked Kobe Bryant’s shot. Not many can make that claim.

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