Los Angeles Lakers' Kobe Bryant Calls Houston Rockets Big Man Dwight Howard 'Teddy Bear' And 'Soft'

Just the first day of the 2014-2015 NBA Season and already there’s drama in one of the match-ups on NBA Opening Night and between two of the league’s most recognisable stars; Los Angeles Lakers shooting guard Kobe Bryant versus Houston Rockets center Dwight Howard.

Former teammates in Los Angeles, Bryant and Howard went at it on Tuesday with both throwing verbal jabs at each other inside the court after the latter threw wayward elbows that hit Bryant in the chin.

Bryant expounded on the apparent intentional elbow from Howard saying it was part of the game but that he wanted to let the Rockets center know that he doesn’t like it one bit.

"He elbowed me in the face, and I'm gonna let him know, I don't like that," Bryant said via the postgame press conference. "It's that simple. That's the game. That's all part of the game. Elbows are a part of the game. Trash-talking is part of the game. I don't know where the NBA became so sensitive. It's all part of it."

Here’s Kobe talking about the incident:

(YouTube/Lakers Nation)

“You can't help but like him," Bryant said, perhaps rich with sarcasm, in the same interview. ”He’s a teddy bear. You can't help but like him.”

To note, during the trash-talking between the two in the Rockets-Lakers tiff after Howard hit Bryant with the elbow to the chin, Bryant was seen calling Howard, “soft” and thus supporting the supposed back-handed compliment on calling the Rockets big man a “teddy bear”.

Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard were teammates with the Los Angeles Lakers in the 2012-2013 NBA Season.

(YouTube/Blaiyan)

Unfortunately for Bryant on NBA Opening Day, the “teddy bear” and his Rockets ran away with the blowout victory, 108-90 with the “soft” big man registering a double-double of 13 points and 11 rebounds. Kobe finished with 19 points on 6-of-17 field goal shooting.

The Lakers and Rockets meet two more times in the NBA regular season— on Nov. 19, 2014 and Jan. 25, 2015. In the game next year, it will not be surprising to see the Staples Center crowd take Kobe Bryant's cue and bring a lot of teddy bears when they cheer against Dwight Howard.