Former NBA forward Earl Clark wasn’t Kobe Bryant’s teammate on the Los Angeles Lakers for all that long because he played just one season, the 2012-13 season, with the storied franchise. However, by many accounts, that one season in Los Angeles was the best of Clark’s pro career from an individual standpoint.
He started more games that season than he did in any other NBA campaign with 36, and he posted personal bests in points (7.3), rebounds (5.5) and assists (1.1) per game while shooting 44.0 percent from the field.
Clark was at the top of his game in Los Angeles and seemingly enjoyed being Bryant’s teammate, but he recently explained to Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson that Bryant had a tendency to snap at practice sometimes.
Kobe Bryant flipped a table over during Lakers practice & ended the practice after growing frustrated with LA teammates says Earl Clark.
Kobe then told everybody:
“We gotta tighten up! We can’t get better like this!”
MAMBA MENTALITY!
🔗WATCH ➡️ https://t.co/1wF8RRkGv2
🔗… https://t.co/8RoXXQKqu1 pic.twitter.com/t3FSYqI1G3
— 👑 Brandon “Scoop B” Robinson (@ScoopB) July 9, 2025
“It’s a lot of times he would just blow up, flip the table and just leave, and practice is over,” Clark said.
Clark was a key rotational piece for the Lakers when he had his cup of coffee with the team, though the squad majorly underperformed from a collective standpoint.
Heading into the 2012-13 season, plenty of people thought the Lakers would contend for the 2013 title after they added guard Steve Nash and big man Dwight Howard to complement their dynamic duo of Bryant and Pau Gasol.
But it wasn’t meant to be. Bryant’s season came to an abrupt stop due to a torn Achilles near the end of a frustrating Lakers regular season, and the team ended up well short of a championship. Los Angeles was swept by the San Antonio Spurs in the opening round of the 2013 NBA Playoffs. Clark averaged just over 20 minutes of action per game in that best-of-seven series.
Not long after the Lakers got booted out of the playoffs in embarrassing fashion, Howard departed the Lakers for the Houston Rockets in free agency, and the Lakers did not field a playoff team again until after Bryant retired.
Clark departed the Lakers in the summer of 2013 as well, as he agreed to join the Cleveland Cavaliers as a free agent. He didn’t last all that long in the NBA following his time in a Lakers uniform, however, as he last played in the league all the way back in the 2014-15 season.