President Trump is not afraid to get in the middle of a fight, and that doesn’t just apply to the Middle East.
The president sat down with YouTuber, boxer, and perhaps future politician Jake Paul at a rally this week in Kentucky, where the two discussed a variety of topics, including the president’s personal past with fighting.
At one point, Paul asked Trump whether he had ever been in a fight. That question led the president to recall and confirm a legendary story about him getting into the middle of a scrap involving several NBA stars, including the late Kobe Bryant.
According to writer Jeff Pearlman, who covered the incident, the fight took place at the NBA All-Star weekend in New York in 1998, where Trump found himself in the elevator with Bryant, legendary Knicks enforcer Charles Oakley, and longtime New Jersey Net Jayson Williams.
The trouble began, reportedly, when Williams became irritated with Bryant for not greeting him in a respectable enough fashion. Bryant, who had only been in the league for two years, was a star, but still relatively new on the scene.
Williams got so angry that he swung at Bryant, and a fight ensued.
Despite the violent brawl between very large pro athletes in a confined space, or maybe because of it, Trump intervened to break up the fight.
“That was a long time ago. Yeah, well, I was breaking up a fight, which sometimes is more dangerous than being in a fight,” Trump said.
“But I like Kobe. Kobe was having a hard time with somebody, and it worked out fine. But yeah, I broke it up—probably not a smart thing to do. Historically, it’s never good to break up fights.”
Given who the combatants were in that elevator, Trump is entirely right to say that breaking up a fight can be more dangerous than being involved in one.
