Kobe was a defiant man, but he envied Su Xi. He envied any young player who got star treatment the moment they entered the league.
Although the Lakers had also meticulously groomed him during his own development, anointing him as the "Crown Prince" early on.
But his path forward had been 'slow'. Even now, he hadn't become the team's absolute leader. He still lived under the immense pressure of Shaquille O'Neal's presence. No one would say the Lakers were Kobe's team; at most, they'd say it was the team of the OK Combination.
In fact, the vast majority considered it Shaquille O'Neal's team.
This had become Kobe's inner demon.
Kobe was a proud and arrogant man.
"You've faced almost no challenges within the Pacers. For someone to so quickly become the leader of a championship team... it's unprecedented in history," Kobe remarked to Su Xi after another session with Arenas.
